Federal Labor will on Thursday announce an election promise to fund 12 months of free broadband to families with school children that do not have internet at home.
During the 12 month stop-gap measure up to 30,000 families identified by schools, state education departments and local community organisations would receive support, while Labor examines longer-term measures to build connectivity at home.
Advertisement
At the beginning of the pandemic, around 600 children or 450 families in the ACT applied for internet support as schools went online. Dongles and SIM cards were provided through the ACT government and Telstra.
Labor intends to implement the new support service through NBNCo providing a wholesale rebate to a designated retail provider.
Pre-pandemic estimates had 3 per cent of Australian households, or around 50,000 with children under the age 15 that did not have internet at home.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese said it became clear during COVID-19 that students needed high-speed broadband to participate in classes from home.
"This experience regrettably revealed some school children did not have access to any home internet, and this compounded an already very difficult school year," he said.
READ MORE:
Earlier this week Labor announced it would expand on the government's plans to replace fibre to the node with full fibre connections to an additional 1.5 million homes by 2025.
Australia now ranks 53rd in the world for fixed-line broadband speeds a year after the NBN was declared functionally complete, due to relatively few homes with access to gigabyte speeds.
Labor also promised it would not privatise the NBN Co, which has been in consideration by the government for several years.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark canberratimes.com.au
- Download our app
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
Harley Dennett
I'm the federal politics bureau chief for the Canberra Times, via a career that's taken me from rural Victoria to Washington DC. Telling the stories of my local LGBTI community brought me to journalism, where I've covered seven federal budgets, four national elections, Defence, public service and international governance.
I'm the federal politics bureau chief for the Canberra Times, via a career that's taken me from rural Victoria to Washington DC. Telling the stories of my local LGBTI community brought me to journalism, where I've covered seven federal budgets, four national elections, Defence, public service and international governance.
