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Equity of Services
Stronger Families and Communities Strategy
The Government has committed an additional $240 million for the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy. A significant amount of funding will go toward strengthening families in regional Australia through the establishment of new partnerships. The Strategy will help address many of the challenges faced by regional and rural families including isolation, economic hardship and a lack of community resources. Local solutions will be developed in partnership with local organisations, volunteers, businesses, communities, families, individuals and all spheres of government. A key feature of the Strategy will be its flexibility in meeting and delivering tailored solutions for regional communities.
The Strategy responds to the themes expressed at the Regional Australia Summit and will improve access to key services for regional and rural Australians. Measures in this Budget will work to strengthen families by investing in prevention and early intervention, including making family counselling more widely available in regional and rural areas. In addition, the Strategy will include a leadership development programme and a youth cadetship programme to help strengthen communities by investing in community capacity to solve problems and to grasp opportunities.
The Strategy encompasses nine new measures that will commence in 2000-01. Five of these measures are outlined below, with the other four - Potential Leadership in Local Communities, National Skills Development for Volunteers, Local Solutions to Local Problems and Can Do Community - outlined in the Community Empowerment chapter.
Stronger Families Fund
A Stronger Families Fund will be established, with funding of $40 million over four years, to encourage communities to develop new and better ways to strengthen families. The emphasis will be on early childhood and parenting and on early intervention and prevention approaches. Projects will be established in a number of communities across Australia.
Early Intervention, Parenting and Family Relationships Support
The Government has committed $47.3 million over four years for this initiative which will strengthen families. It will provide services and activities such as parenting support and playgroups, marriage and relationship education and family counselling, with a focus on regional Australia. It will also assist legal, medical and other professionals in their support for families. This will respond to emerging needs, including those identified through the Stronger Families Fund.
Greater flexibility and choice in child care
The Child Care Programme supports more than 2,000 services that provide 80,000 places in regional and rural areas. Flexible access to child-care facilities is vital in supporting families living and working in those areas. Adequate provision of child-care services will create a positive effect on regional and rural economies, on employment and on social interaction.
The Government has committed $65.4 million over four years for a package of measures to improve the ability of families to access and choose child care that meets their needs. The measures support parents balancing paid work, education, community activities and parenting responsibilities through flexible and responsive child care. More than 7,000 new child care places will be provided.
Shift workers, families working non-standard hours, those who have a sick child or who live in rural areas without access to care will particularly gain through this initiative. The choice of child-care services for families will be increased through the introduction of a subsidy for in-home care and incentives for regional and rural service provision.
Longitudinal study of Australian children
For the first time, a national Longitudinal Study of Australian Children will be conducted. This eight-year study will be an invaluable tool in the development of Government policy on early childhood and effective early intervention and prevention strategies in the areas of health, education, child care and family support. Funding of $6.1 million over four years is being committed to this study.
Communications strategy for Stronger Families and Communities
The Government will provide $8 million over four years for a multi-media communications strategy to promote the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy to the broader community, and to promote local partnerships that support families in their communities and workplaces.
Increased Assistance to Families
From July 2000, regional families will receive increased assistance. Various forms of assistance currently delivered through Centrelink or the tax system will be replaced by Family Tax Benefit, Parts A and B and will provide assistance worth over $2.4 billion each year.
Part A will provide families with help towards the costs of children. An extra $140 a year per child is available under Part A. An extra $350 a year is available for single income families with a child under five through Part B. In addition, the level of income at which assistance begins to become tested will be substantially increased, and families will also be able to keep more of every dollar they earn above the free area.
The Family Allowance assets test will be abolished. This will benefit low-income families with high assets, especially farmers, as they will no longer have to apply under special hardship rules. The new system will have one set of rules administered by a single agency, the Family Assistance Office, which is a joint Centrelink, Australian Taxation Office and Health Insurance Commission venture. Over half of the 550 Family Assistance Office sites are in regional and rural areas.
Increase in Youth Allowance family assets limits
The 2000-01 Budget provides for an increase in the discount for business assets for businesses, including farms, from 50 per cent to 75 per cent under the Youth Allowance family assets test. The cost of this measure will be $131.6 million over four years, $18.5 million in 2000-01.
This measure will financially assist families to keep young people in education to the end of secondary school and support them to go on to higher education or training. This will improve the country's skills base and, ultimately, assist the competitiveness of Australia's primary industries.
Community Development Employment Projects participant entitlements
As a result of changes to the Social Security Act, Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) participants are now able to access additional benefits, such as health care and pensioner concession cards, rent assistance, pharmaceutical and telephone allowances, family allowance and bereavement payments.
Eligible participants also receive a CDEP Participant Supplement payment of $20 each fortnight, similar to payments available to Work for the Dole participants. This Supplement is being paid retrospectively with effect from 20 March 1999. The measures also introduces a more uniform treatment of CDEP wages for new lone-parent participants.
Centrelink: services to regional Australia
Centrelink is the Commonwealth's primary service delivery agency, with responsibility for administering an extensive range of payments and services to individuals across Australia.
In the past 18 months, Centrelink has introduced over 160 new service delivery outlets in regional and rural locations. Services specific to regional and rural areas include:
- 54 per cent or 166 of the 307 Customer Service Centre offices are located in regional areas;
- sixteen Centrelink Call Centres (out of a total of 25) employing over 2,000 staff are located in regional centres;
- a total of 314 contracted community based agents in rural and remote locations (over 65 of which are partnerships with State governments and 141 are specifically targeted at assisting Indigenous customers);
- participation in seven of the 10 Rural Transaction Centres opened since October 1999;
- approximately 140 mobile and visiting services to small or remote towns, and a number of remote visiting teams servicing isolated Indigenous communities; and
- a range of specialist officers providing specific advice tailored to the needs of regional and rural communities.
Centrelink makes use of available technology to provide an efficient service to rural customers and has been participating in a multimedia payphone trial which covers 10 rural locations and is running from March to June 2000.
The Rural CD, introduced in December 1999, helps agents to deliver Centrelink services and products. It contains up-to-date information on Centrelink payments and services as well as a range of printable forms, information and fact sheets.
In the 1999-2000 Budget, funding was announced for the establishment of two Rural Call Centres in Maryborough (Queensland) and Port Augusta (South Australia). The Maryborough Call Centre was opened in February 2000 and the Port Augusta Call Centre is to be opened later this year.
Child Support Agency
From 24 January 2000, the Child Support Agency (CSA), in partnership with Centrelink, began services to its clients from 20 Centrelink offices across Australia. These Regional Service Centres will significantly enhance the access which parents, particularly those in regional Australia, will have to CSA services.
Domestic violence
Partnerships Against Domestic Violence, announced by the Prime Minister at the Heads of Government National Domestic Violence Summit in November 1997, is underpinned by $25.3 million from the Federal Government (from January 1998 to June 2001). One of the key themes of Partnerships is 'helping people in rural and remote communities'. A number of current Partnerships projects are being implemented in regional areas, including projects providing information and referral services to women and children escaping domestic violence, and addressing family violence in Indigenous communities.
In 1999-2000, the Government committed a further $25 million to June 2003 to renew Partnerships Against Domestic Violence and to build on its success to achieve more effective prevention of domestic violence across Australia. It will contribute to the strengthening of families and communities, with a focus on community education, children affected by domestic violence, perpetrators of domestic violence and family violence in Indigenous communities. Helping those affected by domestic violence in rural and remote areas will continue to be a theme in projects undertaken with the new funding.
Rural Domestic Violence Programme
The Rural Domestic Violence Programme, operated by the Department of Transport and Regional Services, is part of the Government's Partnerships Against Domestic Violence initiative. $534,000 has been allocated over three years (July 1998 to June 2001).
By mid-2000, the Department plans to publish and disseminate the findings of a literature review that will consolidate existing data and examine the nature of domestic violence in regional, rural and remote areas. The Department will also manage a targeted grants programme, which will document successful local strategies and good practice case studies on preventing or reducing the incidence of domestic violence in regional, rural and remote areas. Case studies from this programme will be included in another publication, to be released during 2000-01.
Legal and family law
Children's contact services
In the 1999-2000 Budget, new funding of $15.6 million over four years was announced to establish 25 new contact services that would assist separated families to manage difficult child contact arrangements better. The needs analysis which has been conducted in this programme has resulted in 23 out of the 25 new services being directed to regional and rural Australia. The tendering for these services is well advanced and new children's contact services will be operational later this year.
Primary dispute resolution
The 1999-2000 Budget announced new funding of $15.7 million over three years for additional primary dispute resolution services, with particular attention to regional and rural Australia. The first phase of implementing this programme incorporates setting up local and regional partnerships to facilitate and support inter-agency and cross-disciplinary collaboration in family dispute management. These programmes will be implemented later this year.
Law by telecommunications
During 1999-2000, $3.1 million was allocated over three years to establish a national telephone hotline and Internet site that would provide ready access to information and advice about family law and child support matters. This project is now being integrated with the 1998-99 initiative of establishing the Rural, Regional and Remote Legal Advice Telephone Service. This integration will maximise the benefits of both initiatives to women and men across Australia needing legal assistance, and will ensure the best possible delivery. The service will offer referral to counselling, mediation and other primary dispute resolution services.
Community legal services
The Commonwealth Community Legal Services Programme has established five new community legal services in high-need regional centres. Additional funding of $3.6 million over three years has been provided for this initiative. The centres are located in Broken Hill (New South Wales), Gippsland (Victoria), Kalgoorlie (Western Australia), Mount Gambier and Riverland (South Australia). The additional funding also provides for outreach services in the Northern Territory to be provided from Darwin. The initiative brings community legal services to regional centres which previously had no access to these services.
Regional health initiatives
The Federal Government is committed to improving access to health and aged care services for rural, regional and remote communities. The Budget introduces an extensive and integrated package of measures designed to provide more doctors and better health services in these areas, at a cost of $562.1 million over four years.
This package will increase the number of general practitioners and specialists working in rural and regional Australia in the short term, and provides for this increase to continue into the future. Incentives will be provided for medical graduates to undertake their vocational training in rural and regional Australia, immediately increasing the supply of qualified medical practitioners working in these areas.
Better services will be available in rural and regional areas, through a new focus on allied health professionals, chronic disease and increased health and aged care infrastructure with more regional health services and support to ensure the ongoing viability of bush nursing, small community and other small regional non-government hospitals.
Increasing the number of new general practitioner registrars
This measure, worth $102.1 million over four years, will significantly increase the number of general practitioners in regional and rural areas, resulting in increased access to medical services and continuity of care.
The number of places for vocational training will increase by 50 per year, and the distribution of these vocational training places will also be changed to increase services in rural areas.
More allied health services
Many regional and rural communities lack the range of allied health services that are readily available in metropolitan areas, and many doctors who are already overcommitted provide services that allied health professionals could readily provide.
The Budget provides $49.5 million over four years to increase the range of allied health services available to rural and regional communities, including practice nurses, psychologists and podiatrists.
Funding will be provided to employ allied health professionals to meet locally identified needs so that communities can access a wide range of services, and to complement the skills of local doctors.
Providing rural specialists through an outreach programme
A contributing factor to poorer health for many regional and rural Australians is lack of access to specialist medical services. This initiative will allow many regional and rural people to receive specialist services in their own communities, rather than having to travel long distances.
The Federal Budget provides $48.4 million over four years for an outreach programme for specialist services. This includes incentives and/or travel costs for specialists to conduct outreach speciality work and to act as mentors for local health professionals to help them increase their skills. This will ensure that when specialist services are not directly available, regional and rural communities will have access to the skills and services required to meet their health needs.
This programme will be implemented in collaboration with the States and Territories, as well as the specialist colleges, divisions of general practice and Rural Workforce Agencies. The Commonwealth will take on a leadership role to support the availability of specialist services through the outreach programme.
Workforce support for rural general practitioners
The Budget provides $10.2 million over four years for providing support to rural doctors in their regions, particularly those who are newly arrived.
The rural divisions of general practice will be resourced to expand their role to attract and keep general practitioners in areas of need. The support will include professional and family support, links with other health professionals, mentoring of medical students and continuing medical education.
Additional university departments of rural health and clinical schools
This initiative builds on the successes of the existing Commonwealth-supported regional clinical training school at Wagga Wagga, and the seven university departments of rural health.
The Budget provides $117.6 million to establish nine new clinical schools in regional and rural areas and three new university departments of rural health.
This measure will strengthen the regional and rural focus in medical training, increase opportunities for medical students to complete training in regional and rural service delivery, encourage country students to pursue a career in rural medicine, and improve coordination of regional and rural placements for students and the quality of the experience gained.
It will increase the number of health professionals in regional and rural areas where clinical schools and university departments of rural health are located, and provides support and continuing education opportunities for existing health professionals in the area.
Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) reimbursement
This measure will increase the number of medical graduates willing to work in regional and rural areas, with communities benefiting from a corresponding increase in their access to local medical services.
The Federal Budget provides $4.3 million over four years for graduating medical students who are willing to commit to regional practice to `work off' their HECS debt in a designated regional area. One fifth of HECS debt will be foregone for each year worked in designated regional areas and the interest of the HECS debt will be foregone after five years work.
Scholarships for medical students to practice in rural areas
The Government will provide $32.4 million over four years to create a total of 100 scholarships worth $20,000 per year which will be offered to new medical students each year in return for their commitment to practice in regional and rural areas for at least six years after graduating.
Students who accept the scholarships will be issued with a restricted Medicare provider number for the six-year period. They will only be eligible to charge for and receive a rebate for medical services in urban areas after they have met their obligations.
Enhanced Rural Australian Medical Undergraduate Scholarships (RAMUS)
The Government will provide $8 million over four years to expand the successful RAMUS scheme, supporting rural undergraduate medical students who have completed their secondary education in a rural area. It will also result in a greater number of medical graduates entering rural practice.
This measure doubles the number of RAMUS scholarships, bringing the total number of students receiving scholarships to almost 400 each year. These scholarships provide financial assistance towards the cost of accommodation, living and travel expenses.
In the longer term this initiative is expected to result in an increase in the number of doctors entering rural practice. Evidence suggests that medical graduates originally from regional and rural areas are more likely to return to practice in those areas once they have completed their training.
Getting more health services into regional Australia
The successful and innovative Regional Health Services Programme is to be substantially expanded, with a Budget allocation of $68.9 million providing for at least 85 additional services to be established nationally over the next four years.
The Regional Health Services Programme recognises that no two communities are alike, so that there is no `one size fits all' answer, therefore requiring local solutions to be tailored to local priorities. This Programme works with regional and rural communities to identify local priorities and develop and support integrated services to address these priorities. A wide range of services can be supported under the Programme, including community health care, child health services, substance misuse and abuse counselling, mental health and aged care.
Getting more pharmacy services into regional Australia
Pharmacies play a key role in maintaining the health of all Australians.
As part of this year's Budget, there will be greater access to quality pharmacy services in regional and rural areas. The Government will provide an additional $41.6 million over four years to maintain and improve access to pharmacy services in rural and remote areas.
A number of new payments to pharmacists will replace the Isolated Pharmacy Allowance and the Remote Pharmacy Allowance. These new payments will be higher than current allowances and will encourage pharmacists to operate in communities in need and ensure they can remain economically viable over time. They will provide support for pharmacists who provide medications to Aboriginal Health Services in remote areas and to promote Quality Use of Medicines to these communities.
In addition, there will be a series of new pharmacy workforce development activities, including locum placement arrangements and rural pharmacy scholarships.
First-class regional hospitals
Funding of $30.3 million over four years will be spent on revitalising bush nursing, community and other small, regional non-government hospitals.
This will give communities continued access to high-quality private health services and ensure they have a choice in their health care.
Under this initiative, hospitals may decide to re-structure their facilities to make them more viable and relevant to community needs, such as multi-purpose centres and aged-care facilities.
Combating chronic disease in regional Australia
The Government is concerned that death and disability from chronic disease is higher in regional and rural communities, particularly among Indigenous people.
To combat this, $14.2 million over four years has been allocated to assist regional and rural communities to prevent and manage diseases such as asthma, heart disease, stroke, renal failure, Type 2 diabetes and preventable injuries.
Services for rural, older Australians
The Budget provides $30.8 million to help ensure that older people living in regional and rural communities have access to quality, appropriate aged care facilities where and when they need it.
Too often, older people in regional and rural areas have to travel substantial distances to receive care. The Adjustment Grants for Small Rural Aged Care, comprising capital and viability funding, aim to redress this by assisting smaller facilities to improve their services and remain open.
The capital grants will assist with building new services to boost the number of aged care places available and will allow existing aged care services to expand and upgrade their buildings.
The viability funding recognises the higher day-to-day operation costs of aged care services in regional and rural areas. Around 180 regional and rural facilities currently receive viability funding. This funding will increase the support those facilities receive, and provide viability assistance to more facilities.
This important initiative will provide quality services to frail and older Australians in their local area, close to the comfort and support of their families and friends.
Service delivery
The Government is committed to improving access to health and aged care services for regional and rural communities, across Australia. This is demonstrated by ongoing major investment in meeting the health needs of Australians through the Medicare, Pharmaceutical Benefits, and Aged Care programmes.
During 1999-2000, estimated total Federal Government expenditure on rural and remote health and aged care is over $6.2 billion. This represents approximately 26.8 per cent of the estimated $23.9 billion the Government will spend on health and aged care in 1999-2000. Aged-care expenditure is expected to account for more than $1 billion of the total.
The bulk of the remaining $5.2 billion funds mainstream programmes such as medical and pharmaceutical benefits, and approximately $279.6 million in 1999-2000 is directed to specific rural and remote health programmes and initiatives. Of this, $99.5 million is allocated to workforce programmes and $54 million to initiatives targeting health services and support programmes. A further $107 million comprises Indigenous-specific initiatives in rural and remote areas.
National radiotherapy single machine unit trial
An innovative system of radiotherapy service delivery for rural people is to be trialed in three locations in Victoria using single machine units. This is based on a hub and spoke service delivery model whereby rural single machine unit radiotherapy services are linked to major metropolitan services, with an aim of ensuring standards of professional and service quality are delivered.
The trial will be undertaken at a cost of $9.7 million over four years and seeks to test the extent to which single machine units will improve access to and use of radiotherapy services without compromising quality of care. The trial will also investigate the cost-effectiveness and long-term financial viability of single machine services. The costs of this trial are to be shared between the Federal Government and the Victorian Government. It will be subject to a rigorous evaluation and will contribute to future Federal Government policy on single machine units.
Subsidisation of the accreditation fee for small residential aged-care facilities
The accreditation of residential aged-care facilities ensures continuous improvement, both in the enhancement of the level of care provided and in the improvement of business practices.
The accreditation fee structure has been developed to take account of the diversity within the industry and to reflect the costs of the assessments provided. On average, the fee for accreditation represents less than 1 per cent of facilities' annual incomes. To ensure that the fee for accreditation is less than 1 per cent of all facilities' annual incomes, the Government will pay the fee for facilities with 19 or fewer places, and a tapered fee subsidy for facilities with between 20 and 25 places. The Government will provide $6.3 million over four years for this measure which largely benefits smaller rural and remote service providers.
Early detection of bowel cancer
Over the next four years, more than $7 million will be invested in improving knowledge of the early detection of bowel cancer.
Bowel cancer screening will be offered to 50,000 people aged between 50 and 75 years. A pilot programme will test the feasibility of a general screening programme for that age population in both urban and rural settings.
The pilot will focus on the efficacy of the screening protocols in order to validate reduction in mortality and to demonstrate cost effectiveness of screening. It will also examine the practical issues surrounding implementation: recruitment for screening, delivery and community acceptance of the tests, payment and funding, supporting infrastructure for a national effort and data collection and monitoring.
Screening programmes for cervical and breast cancers were introduced nationally a decade ago and this measure will build on the experience of those two programmes. The outcomes of the pilot will inform consideration of Australia-wide bowel cancer screening.
Veterans
Thirty-one per cent of entitled veterans and war widows live in regional, rural and remote Australia. Improving their health status continues to be of prime importance and the Government has announced the following measures.
Response to the findings of the Vietnam Veterans' Morbidity (Health) Study
The package of benefits in response to the findings of the Vietnam Veterans' Morbidity (Health) Study has a broad range of treatment and preventative measures targeting the health of veterans and their families. Much of the package is based on increasing accessibility and availability of services, which will have a direct impact on veterans living in rural and remote Australia.
The satellite broadcast on 28 March 2000, Family Dysfunction and Suicide in the Vietnam Veteran Community, a pre-budget initiative, was primarily designed to educate and inform health professionals throughout rural and remote Australia on suicide identification and treatment issues specific to the veteran population. It is envisaged that this broadcast will act as a catalyst for many of the preventative health initiatives in the package, aimed at veterans, their partners and children. In total, the package includes over 20 separate initiatives and represents an additional $32 million commitment over the next four years to the health and welfare of Australia's veteran community. These initiatives will be implemented progressively from 1 July 2000.
Increased assistance for isolated children
Rural and remote Australian families, whose children do not have reasonable access to an appropriate government school, will benefit from increases of $16.4 million over four years to 2003-04 under the Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) Scheme and the comparable ABSTUDY School Fees Allowance, for students who have to live away from home to attend secondary school.
The AIC Scheme provides funding to help rural families meet the costs associated with boarding arrangements, setting up a second family home or study via distance education, to ensure that their children's educational outcomes improve over time. The Scheme has been allocated approximately $13.8 million in additional funding over four years.
- The Basic Boarding Allowance will increase from $3,539 to $3,893, while the Additional Boarding Allowance will be maintained at current levels. Both of these allowances will continue to be indexed annually in line with inflation.
- The Second Home Allowance will increase from $2,500 to $3,893.
- The Distance Education Allowance will increase from $1,000 to $1,052 for primary students and $1,500 to $1,579 for secondary students.
- From 2001, the Second Home Allowance and Distance Education Allowance will be, for the first time, annually increased in line with inflation to ensure that the additional funding is not eroded over time.
To ensure parity is maintained with the AIC's boarding allowances, the relevant component of ABSTUDY School Fees Allowance will also be increased to the same amount, from the basic maximum of $3,539 to $3,893, and will continue to be indexed in future years. This component of the ABSTUDY School Fees Allowance helps those families whose secondary school-aged students have to live away from home to attend school. The additional component of this allowance will be maintained at its current level. The total cost of the increase will be nearly $2.7 million over four years.
The revised rates will take effect from 1 January 2001.
New apprenticeships - workforce skills development
Significant growth has been achieved in the number of New Apprenticeships in Australia, from 143,700 in 1996 to over 250,000 at the end of September 1999. Over one-third of New Apprenticeships are located in regional and rural Australia.
The Government will continue to provide targeted and flexible support through the New Apprenticeships Workforce Skills Development Programme. During 2000-01, $22.6 million will be provided, $27.2 million in 2001-02, $30.1 million in 2002-03 and $29.2 million in 2003-04.
Rural and Regional New Apprenticeship Incentive
This incentive boosts skills and opportunities for young people in regional and rural Australia, in particular by providing an additional progression incentive of $1,000 to employers who progress New Apprentices to higher skill levels in trades and occupations experiencing skill shortages. For 2000-01, expenditure on this incentive is expected to be in the order of $6.6 million.
Country Areas Programme
The Country Areas Programme is continuing to improve the educational opportunities, participation, learning outcomes and personal development of rural and isolated primary and secondary students. It aims to ensure that country students have equitable access to quality education. Annual expenditure for this Programme is currently $19.9 million.
Jobs Pathways Programme
The Government will provide $10.3 million in 2000-01 for the Jobs Pathways Programme in addition to the ongoing, base funding of $11.7 million. This will ensure that the current level of demand can continue to be satisfied and will help students to make a smooth transition from school to work. Funding is provided to contracted service providers who, in turn, work closely with schools and the community. The ongoing availability of transition support for young people will have a positive impact on many regional centres.
Tasmanian Environmental Tourism Employment and Training
As part of the Telstra Social Bonus (see note, below, in the Communications and Information Technology Section), the Government is funding an environmental tourism employment and training initiative in Tasmania. The Government provided $3.2 million in 1999-2000 and will provide $3.1 million in 2000-01 and $3.1 million in 2001-02.
The funding provides training in the tourism and hospitality sector for over 300 people, especially those living in rural and remote areas. The emphasis is on environmental tourism and the wilderness experience.
Indian Ocean territories
The isolated communities of Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands are wholly dependent on the Federal Government for the funding of government services. These include services normally provided by State and local governments, such as education, health and housing.
In response to the recommendations of the Commonwealth Grants Commission Report on Indian Ocean Territories 1999, the Government has committed an additional $2.9 million a year to ensure that service delivery standards are, so far as is practicable, the same as those of comparable communities on the mainland.
The Government has also committed $22 million in 2000-01 to upgrade infrastructure required for the delivery of mainland-equivalent services. These services help foster the social and economic capacity of these communities as well as facilitating and maintaining their links with the rest of Australia and the wider world economy.
Jervis Bay territory
The Federal Government provides most of the State and local government-type services to Jervis Bay at a standard comparable with that of the adjoining Shoalhaven region of New South Wales. An annual expenditure of $3.3 million ensures service delivery through arrangements made with the Australian Capital Territory, Shoalhaven City Council and the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community Council.
Norfolk Island
The Norfolk Island community is limited in its access to regional funding initiatives as a result of the non-extension of some Commonwealth legislation to this self-governing Commonwealth Territory. The Federal Government provides annual funding of around $370,000 to Norfolk Island for the conservation and maintenance of the Kingston and Arthur's Vale Historic Area. Funding of $36,000 per annum is also provided for legal aid assistance.
Communications and information technology
Note: The Telstra Social Bonus refers to the social bonus component from the sale of the second tranche (16.6 per cent) of Telstra, which is being allocated to expand many programmes delivering services to regional Australians in the areas of communications, information technology and the environment.
Regional Equalisation Plan: digital television services
In 2000-01, the Government will introduce a Regional Equalisation Plan to assist the rollout of digital television and datacasting services to Australians living in regional and remote Australia. Over 13 years, up to $260 million in financial assistance will be provided to assist commercial television broadcasters with its introduction. In 2000-01, $22.6 million will be provided.
Commonwealth assistance under the Plan represents 50 per cent of the estimated capital and operating costs to regional commercial broadcasters in converting to digital. This assistance will be made available predominantly in the form of rebates on annual licence fees paid by the broadcasters. In order to ensure the timely delivery of digital broadcasting and datacasting services in different parts of regional and rural Australia, these licence fee rebates will be supplemented by a small grants programme for broadcasters in some single-service licence areas.
National broadcasting
The Government has committed to funding the ABC and SBS to enter the age of digital television broadcasting. In order to ensure that all Australians have access to this new technology, the Government will provide $66.2 million of capital over four years for new digital equipment, and additional funding for the costs of transmission and distribution. This will ensure that the digital broadcasting coverage of the ABC and SBS will match the coverage of analogue transmission at the end of the rollout period.
Regional Communications Partnership
As part of the sale of the National Transmission Network (NTN) in 1999, the Federal Government agreed to form a Regional Communications Partnership Fund with the network's new owner, ntl Australia Pty Ltd (ntl). The Fund will assist community-based, `self-help' retransmission groups increase access to NTN sites in regional and remote areas of Australia by subsidising the commercial fees payable. These self-help groups retransmit commercial and national television and radio services to communities that would not otherwise have had access.
A $10 million fund has been established to provide the subsidies, with the Government and ntl each contributing $5 million.
Universal Service Obligation
The Universal Service Obligation (USO) underpins the delivery of some 400,000 telephone services in regional and remote Australia, and is funded by a levy on telecommunications carriers. The Government is expanding the levy base to include carriage service providers, thereby making funding more equitable and sustainable.
Information Technology Online Programme
Small and medium-sized businesses are being encouraged to gain commercial business benefits across industry. The Information Technology Online (ITOL) Programme is a competitive grant programme providing catalytic support to innovative e-commerce. Projects are collaborative in nature, with participation from universities, industry associations and commercial organisations.
Grants are available for up to 50 per cent of eligible project costs, capped at $150,000. They have been awarded for projects in areas as diverse as building and construction, agriculture, rural portals, social welfare and the health sector. The fifth round of grants is expected to open in June 2000.
Social bonus initiatives in telecommunications
Networking the Nation - Building Additional Rural Networks
Seventy million dollars is being provided over five years from 1999-2000 to support the development of new regional networks and new networks services and products, with an emphasis on the adoption of innovative solutions and leading-edge technologies. Building Additional Rural Networks (BARN) will benefit regional and rural communities by supporting improvements in the cost and quality of telecommunications services in those areas. Funds are available for eligible not-for-profit organisations through the Networking the Nation grants programme.
Networking the Nation - the Local Government Fund
Forty-five million dollars over five years, from 1999-2000, is being provided for the Local Government Fund. The Fund will assist local government authorities in regional, rural and remote Australia to provide online access to information and services, including the Internet. Funds are available for local government authorities through the Networking the Nation grants programme.
Networking the Nation - the Internet Access Fund
Thirty-six million dollars over three years has been allocated for this programme from 1999-2000. The aim is to establish additional Internet local points of presence in rural and remote call zones, ensuring that all Australians have affordable access to the Internet.
The Internet is a vital business, educational and social tool that all Australians should be able to access at a local call charge, or under charging arrangements at least equivalent to local call rates. The Networking the Nation programme will distribute funds under this initiative, with those applications received considered by the independent Networking the Nation Board.
Networking the Nation - the Remote and Isolated Island Communities Fund
The Remote and Isolated Island Communities Fund is receiving $20 million over three years from 1999-2000. The Fund will assist in meeting the telecommunications needs of people in remote and isolated island communities, such as the Torres Strait; the Cocos (Keeling) Group; Christmas, Norfolk, King, Flinders, Kangaroo and other islands; and the Australian Antarctic Territories.
The Fund will benefit these remote and isolated island communities by providing funding for infrastructure and services such as cheaper and better Internet access, mobile phone services, and improved access to a range of online services. Tasmania is expected to receive $10 million under this programme, based on the significant needs of Tasmania's islands.
Funds are available for eligible not for profit organisations through the Networking the Nation grants programme.
Connecting Tasmanian schools
Fifteen million dollars is being provided to assist in establishing local area and wide area networks linking Tasmanian schools. The funding will also provide additional computers and support equipment for the State's government and non-government schools. This initiative will particularly benefit those Tasmanian school students in the rural and remote areas of the State, through improved networks and access to online services. The computers and networks provided under this programme will be equipped with appropriate filtering technology to protect students from exposure to unsuitable material.
The total budget for this initiative is $48 million: Telstra will provide $5 million, an additional $12 million will be sourced from Tasmania's existing Networking the Nation allocation, and the Tasmanian Government is expected to provide $16 million. The programme is being coordinated by the Tasmanian Department of Education.
Untimed local calls in extended zones
This $150 million initiative will fund the telecommunications infrastructure upgrade needed to enable all customers within the `extended zones' in remote Australia to have access to untimed local calls within their extended zone. There are 40,000 services in operation in the extended zones.
Mobile phones on highways
The aim of this $25 million programme is to provide continuous phone service along the 9,425 kilometres of nominated Australian highways. This will facilitate the use of mobile phones along these highways for social, economic and safety reasons. The Government is currently finalising the funding allocation process.
Funding to expand mobile phone coverage in regional Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania
Three million dollars is being provided to improve mobile phone coverage in regional and rural Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania. This builds on the funding of $25 million for mobile phones on designated highways, with funds being allocated in consultation with State governments.
Intelligent Island Programme (Tasmania)
The Intelligent Island Programme was announced in June 1999, with funding of $40 million over five years from the Telstra Social Bonus. The Programme will further develop an internationally competitive information technology and telecommunications sector in Tasmania. It will fund a range of new projects and build on existing Tasmanian Government initiatives and the research capacity of Tasmania's tertiary education infrastructure.
Launceston Broadband Project
This is a joint initiative between Telstra and the Federal Government to develop information technology and telecommunications skills in Tasmania. The Project has three elements:
- establishing a Multimedia Development Laboratory (MDL) for the commercialisation of Internet-related products;
- delivering and trialing advanced Internet access (through ADSL technology) for a set of between 2,500 and 5,000 residential and business customers in Launceston; and
- stimulating new high-tech business opportunities in the Launceston region through a $5 million Business Development Fund.
The MDL will begin operation in June 2000 with the first 500 customers to be connected by August 2000. The Federal Government is providing $15 million from the Telstra Social Bonus, which is being matched by $15 million from Telstra over five years from 1999-2000.
Trials in Innovative Government Electronic Regional Services
Trials in Innovative Government Electronic Regional Services (TIGERS) was launched in April 2000. Ten million dollars will be provided over three years to trial a range of innovative means of delivering government services over the Internet, through call centres and over-the-counter facilities. The TIGERS programme will be undertaken in Tasmania.
Television Fund
The Government established the $120 million Television Fund from the proceeds of the Telstra Social Bonus, primarily to extend SBS television to transmission areas of more than 10,000 people and to fix television reception `black spots'.
In December 1999, a three-year rollout schedule for the extension of SBS television to 1.2 million Australians in 36 regional areas was announced. The first services are expected to commence by the middle of 2000.
As part of the Television Fund, the Government is providing a two-thirds subsidy for the purchase of a transmitter and decoder necessary to provide a second terrestrial commercial-television signal to `self-help' communities in remote areas. It is expected that around 300 community groups will benefit from this subsidy.