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The National Communications Fund - Factsheet
The National Communications Fund (NCF) is the Australian Government's $52.2 million program supporting significant communications projects in the education and health sectors in regional and rural Australia.
The NCF is a key initiative in response to the Telecommunications Service Inquiry that assessed the adequacy of telecommunications services in metropolitan, regional and remote Australia. The NCF plays an important role in bridging service and infrastructure gaps in remote parts of Australia. It builds on the many benefits delivered to regional communities through the Government's Networking the Nation program, and is also part of the Government's $1 billion investment to improve communications and information technology services for all Australians—no matter where they live.
Program objective
The NCF is designed to improve the delivery of education and health services in regional and rural areas of Australia by means of improved communications. By funding large-scale telecommunications projects through the NCF, the Government is also enabling new network infrastructure and/or enhancing the capabilities of existing network infrastructure.
Consultation
The Australian Government undertook extensive consultation when developing the guidelines for the NCF program. Calls for public comment on the draft guidelines and meetings with more than 80 key stakeholders took place from July to September 2001. This process ensured the NCF guidelines reflected the education and health-related telecommunications needs identified by Australians living in regional and rural Australia.
Collaboration
When developing the NCF project proposals, the Government encouraged applicants to form collaborations or consortia of project partners. All the successful NCF applicants are required to commit their own financial and in-kind resources to their respective projects to maximise flow-on benefits.
Successful applicants
An independent advisory selection panel consisting of experts in areas such as education and health service delivery, telecommunications networks and project management assessed the applications. The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts made the final decision on successful NCF applicants.
The panel members were:
Mr Neville Stevens - Chair
Ms Elizabeth Bryan - Member - Financial/Business
Ms Carol Daunt Member - Education
Professor John O'Callaghan - Member - Technical
Dr Geoffrey Vaughan - Member - Education and major projects
Ms Jennifer Williams - Member - Health
The successful NCF projects and their respective Commonwealth funding grant are:
Multi-state:
New South Wales and Northern Territory Interactive e-Learning Initiative—$8 million
New South Wales:
Health and Education Information Access for Rural and Regional NSW—$3.5 million
Northwest and New England Broadband Telecommunications Network—$5.5 million
Queensland:
outbacknet@qld—$8 million
South Australia:
Regional Network Delivering Education Services—$6 million
Tasmania:
Tasmanian Health and Education Communications Consortium—$3 million
Victoria:
Grampians Rural Health Alliance Network—$8 million
Western Australia:
Network WA—$8 million