MP Michelle Rowland announces free internet for 10,000 eligible South Australian families

Federal member for Greenway Michelle Rowland joined Dan Crouch to announce free internet access for 10,000 eligible South Australian families who are currently not connected. Ms. Rowland, Minister for Communications, outlined all the finer details of the plan, which was made possible by the South Australian Education Department, on Flow FM.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I'm joined by Michelle Rowland, Memberfor Greenway in New South Wales since twenty
ten and Minister for Communications. MinisterRowland a pleasure to have you here on
Flower FM today. Thanks for joiningme. How are you? I'm great,
Dan, good morning. You've gotan exciting announcement to make and it
will be very relevant, i'm sureto our listeners here on Flower FM,
so i'd love to invite you toshare that announcement with us right now.

(00:22):
Thanks Dan, And as your listenerswill know, we need reliable, quality,
high speed internet for everyone. It'snot a luxury, it's not a
nice to have. It's absolutely essentialto participate in our digital economy and it's
particularly important for young people and schoolstudents. And we know that during the
pandemic too many students were left behindfrom virtual learning because they didn't have the

(00:45):
internet at home. And that's whythe Albanity government went to the election with
a commitment to support up to thirtythousand families right across Australia to have free
internet access through the NBN for ayear, and I'm so pleased today announced
that South Australia's Education Department is nowmaking this assistance available to over ten thousand

(01:06):
eligible families in the South Australian schoolsystem. So that's great news. For
those families who'll be getting free internetfor a year, that is great news.
That's a really exciting announcement. Whataction do unconnected families need to take
to get themselves connected under this plan? And further to that, for those
families who aren't connected, I haveto assume they'll be able to get themselves

(01:29):
connected without needing current internet access toapply or fill out any online forms.
That's right, Dan. We're tryingto make this as easy as possible,
so those families can go through eithertheir school, they can contact their Department
of Education, or they can bereferred through a partner agency like a nominating
charity, or even contact their localfederal member or senator. And we're trying

(01:53):
to make this as broadly available aspossible. But you need to have a
child living at home who's enrolled inschool, you need to be referred by
a nominating organization, you need tohave no current active broadband service over the
NBN, and you need to livesomewhere where you can access the standard NBAN
service. But that should include justabout all of those school students. That

(02:16):
the whole point here is we wantto make it as widely available as possible,
including over the various technology through whichthe NBN is delivered, so that
can be the sixth service, thesixth wireless service, or the satellite service.
And really, please, if thisis going to be available to South
Australian students, now, will theinternet access will it be a bit of

(02:36):
a free for all, or willit be restricted to use for work and
school work and that sort of thing'stools for work and education, or will
it just be straight up internet accessusing it for whatever you like. Then
we're making this available at people's homesand part of this is because we want
households to experience the difference of whatit can mean to be connected. And

(03:00):
we know that for a lot offamilies, they're starting to discover that they're
expected to deal with governments through onlinemeans, with banks through e commerce.
So the whole point here is toget that household connected. And yes,
this is about connecting school students,but it certainly will benefit whole families in
those households who haven't been connected before. And as I said, we're trying

(03:23):
to make this as easy as possible. Yes, there are eligibility criteria,
but we're trying to ensure that everyonewho needs this access can get it.
They get it free for a wholeyear, and I hope and I'm very
confident that those families will see thebenefits of that connectivity and how it can
really make an impact on their lives. So the plan is for one year

(03:46):
as of right now. Is thereany sort of thought of what will happen
after that year for these families,Will there be a possibility of extending the
plan or is there anything in theworks during this next year to keep them
connected beyond the two month periods.We're certainly turning our mind to that right
now. Dan, We're using thisas pretty much a playbook for how we

(04:06):
go forward to assisting families who needto get connected. We're going to examine
the results as more and more familiesare connected, and we've got some three
thousand households who are currently connected andaround twenty thousand households around Australia to whom
vouchers have been issued. Now wewant people to appreciate the importance of getting

(04:29):
connected and to get those vouchers actionsso they can start experience the benefits.
They're absolutely right. We're using thistime to examine why people aren't connected,
what could be the barriers to gettingconnected, and keeping our options open going
forward. So this is a reallyimportant learning experience. This is the first
time this has been done at scalein Australia, so there will be a

(04:53):
lot of learnings and a lot offeedback, but ultimately we want people to
experience the benefits that come with it, and in particular for those school students,
I would love to know for ourregional listeners who might struggle with poor
service due to living so remotely,is there anything in place for them to
get better access under this plan.They will be part of this as well,

(05:13):
so it's irrespective of where you livein Australia. NBN will examine the
premise and work out what technology isavailable to them. But ultimately, as
I said, this is about connectingunconnected students wherever they may be in South
Australia, and I'm very pleased Imust say that your South Australian Minister for
Education, Blair Boyer, has beenvery supportive of this initiative and I think

(05:39):
it's going to make a real differenceto South Australian school students irrespective of where
they live in your great state.Well, Minister Roland, that is a
really exciting announcement and I have nodoubt it will make a big difference for
a lot of students and families asthey navigate their education. And we know
how important and essential online learning hasbecome, and we learned a way throughout

(06:00):
COVID lockdown, So that is areally exciting announcement and I'm sure it will
make a very big difference for alot of families and I really appreciate you
making that with us on Flow FMtoday. Before you go, I'd love
to know AFL and NRL Grand Finalsare coming up just around the corner.
Do you have a tip for whoyou think might win? Any thought that
New South Wales might be home toa premiership couple or two by the end

(06:25):
of the month. Well, comingfrom Northwest Sydney, I'm backing the GWS
Giants of course, but in theNRL, my beloved term at a Eels
one of the most frustrating teams inthe competition. I love them, but
I don't know whether there's any pathwayfor them for the rest of this year
to get to where they were lastyear in the premiership. But good luck

(06:46):
to both of my team. Verygood Minister Roll, and thank you very
much for your time today and formaking that announcement with us. Looking forward
to speaking with you again soon andall the best with this plan moving forward
and you and your listeners day,let's get South Australian's connected.