Ms BADGER (Lyons) – Honourable Speaker, it is really important when we are talking about tourism, trade, and major investment that we are looking at things that not only complement business investment in our state and supporting businesses starting up but then can also help the community in general. When we are looking at all of these investment decisions, are we getting the fundamentals and essentials right before we move on to non essential projects such as the stadium?
We in this state have a serious digital divide. It is the expectation that in 2025 there is basic connectivity for people in rural areas. Even in fairly urban areas in Tasmania there is a connectivity issue and that is confidence not only for the community but also for businesses. How can businesses start-ups come to this state if they cannot be guaranteed that they can have reliable Internet connectivity?
In the Australian Digital Inclusion Index confirms that Tasmania is the second most digitally disadvantaged state or territory in this country, having languished the bottom of that table for the last decade. It identifies that one in four Tasmanians face some form of barrier to digital inclusion, and that 54,000 Tasmanians are either unable to get online or, if they can, they don’t have the digital literacy to navigate the online world confidently.
The Tasmanian Council of Social Services (TasCOSS) recently published its budget priority statement for 2025‑26, ‘Digital Inclusion: Tackling the Digital Divide’. The report included a number of recommendations that this government should be prioritising to bridge the digital divide. This includes working with industry, working with communities and consumers to fix this widespread problem, reducing the cost of telecommunications, supporting the Tasmanian ICT industry in building scam cybersecurity and artificial intelligence awareness into digital literacy programs.
This is beyond future‑proofing for our state at this point; this is playing catch‑up. These are absolutely fundamental things. We have people here paying 2025 prices for connectivity, for the phone and for the internet with 1990s quality connectivity. That is not their fault.
The minister can sit here and say, ‘It is a federal issue; we are doing all of this’ – then why, in 2025 at the Cygnet Folk Festival, was there was a loss of reception? Tasmanian businesses were losing business because the EFTPOS machines were cutting out. This happens every summer in Swansea. We know that this happens in St Helens.
Ms Ogilvie – Have you talked to Telstra?
The SPEAKER – Minister Ogilvie.
Ms BADGER – They should talk to Telstra – believe me, minister, they are talking to the big networks. They are trying to find this solution and they need your help. It is an essential service. It is your job to help them.
On the Tasman Peninsula, Port Arthur – when the population changes, when it is tourism season, they see cruise ships come in and there is an overload on their network. We have heard the mayor speak out about this quite a lot recently. There has been a community meeting. I know there were several members in this place who attended the community meeting on the Tasman Peninsula, trying to get help. They have seen cases where emergency services have not had connectivity to know that there is an emergency in their area to go and help. That is completely unacceptable in 2025. We have to be making sure that we have basic investment into community infrastructure that is complementary to the tourism space also.
For example, last sitting fortnight in this place we tabled a petition on behalf of residents in Swanwick and Coles Bay. There were 414 people who signed that petition calling for a safe cycleway and walking track to connect Swanwick and Coles Bay. These are towns that are incredibly close together, but the local families – it is a growing community, there are lots of people, various ages and abilities – just want to be able to walk or cycle safely between the two towns, to be able to go to the shop on their bike. Otherwise they are stuck on a main road with huge amounts of tourist traffic going into the Freycinet National Park. That would be a tremendous complementary piece of infrastructure to have in place for those communities, and to boost Freycinet National Park which is a wonderful nature-based tourism destination.
We have to get the essentials right in this state before we do other things. That means ensuring that there is essential infrastructure in place for Tasmanians for the future.
