Government talks up free Wi-Fi for First Nations communities, concerns over social media news vacuum

The Commonwealth government announced last week that 18 remote First Nations communities will receive free Wi-Fi as part of an effort to close the digital divide and offer greater access to essential online services such as telehealth and education.

Michelle Rowland, Minister for Communications, and Katy Gallagher, Minister of Finance and Women, made the announcement following a 21 June Data and Digital Ministers Meeting in the Northern Territory, which is home to three communities taking part in the free Wi-Fi program.

“In regional and remote parts of Australia, having that access to basic connectivity remains a real challenge – that’s particularly the case for First Nations communities. We know how important it is to be able to access things like telehealth and also ensuring that we have access to remote learning. But again, these rely on connectivity solutions,” Minister Rowland said at a joint press conference.

“I’m very pleased to be part of a government that wishes to deliver for First Nations communities and wants to work with them – which is one of the reasons why last year, I established the First Nations Digital Inclusion Advisory Group to ensure that we get buy-in from First Nations Australians about the best way to go about this.

“I’m very pleased to announce today that we now have onboard 18 communities as sites for free community Wi-Fi.”

Gavin Williams, chief development officer, regional and remote at NBN Co – who was at the event – said the NBN is committed to the work and that the Wi-Fi will be “powered by the NBN Sky Muster satellite system”.

“We’ll be providing access to Wi-Fi right across communities, which will provide free access to broadband,” Williams said.

“We’re also working importantly, as the minister said, with communities, co-designing not just for the technical solution, the location of technology infrastructure, but on issues such as times of day where services can be accessed and the types of services that content filtering would enable access to.”

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Ana Tonkin of the Yalu Aboriginal Corporation said the Wi-Fi access would “genuinely change lives” in the communities it is being rolled out in, including Galiwinku, situated on the remote Elcho Island in the East Arnhem region.

“Galiwinku is an incredibly remote community – it’s an island community, and the families that we have living there, a lot of the time are separated by water and land,” Tonkin said.

“What this service – this free Wi-Fi service – will provide is the opportunity for families to be able to connect seamlessly, which is not the case at the moment.”

When asked about possible access controls to the Wi-Fi service, particularly around social media access, Tonkin was circumspect on the need to treat those platforms carefully.

“The community has raised some questions around accessibility of some particular websites that they’re not very comfortable with, or they do want to have safeguarding around to ensure that children are kept safe,” Tonkin said.

Tonkin did add that “social media is a much bigger topic than all of us, but the reality is people are going to be accessing certain websites and social platforms anyway”.

When asked about the proposed recommendations regarding age-based restrictions on access to social media, Minister Rowland said that trials are ongoing.

“What we are undertaking is a trial of those technologies, testing them for efficacy, their capability of being implemented, privacy and security and other concerns,” Minister Rowland said.

“From there, that will inform a number of areas. As we have made it very clear as a government, there needs to be an appropriate age for social media.”

Minister Rowland said she was particularly concerned about the possible impact of the removal of local news from social media platforms.

“It’s been very clear, not only from commentary from academics but also by publishers themselves, that the digital detritus that is left over when news is exited is a deep concern. That’s why, as a government, we are seeking to introduce laws that deal with mis- and disinformation, for the purpose of ensuring that the platforms are accountable, that they are transparent, and we look at their systems and processes for how they deal with mis and disinformation,” Minister Rowland said.

“The removal of news from social media platforms will be deeply harming to Australian democracy – that is a fact, because what it will be replaced with is not trusted news sources that are subject to ethics and certain journalistic standards, but that digital detritus where mis- and disinformation is left to breed unattended and unregulated, and that is certainly an area that this government is seeking to address through legislation.”

David Hollingworth

David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.