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National brokers
Three national broadband adviser positions were jointly funded by three Australian Government departments: Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA), Education, Science and Training (DEST), and Health and Ageing (DOHA).
The advisers helped bring about broadband initiatives across all levels of government and between states in the education and health sectors. DCITA has later funded a third national broadband advisor position to coordinate demand in the local government sector, in conjunction with the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA)
Education broadband adviser
Mr Peter Nissen was National Broadband Adviser for Education from March 2004 until 30 June 2006. He has worked closely with schools, universities and vocational education and training associations to encourage them to employ best practice in procuring bandwidth.
Mr Nissen also explored ways to maximise the benefits of the ‘fibre infrastructure' used by the higher education and research sector. He has achieved the following.
- Bridging connections between the Australian Academic Research Network (AARNet) national and international ‘backbone' with state and territory education departments
- Negotiating arrangements to ensure schools accessing publicly funded content are not charged by download volume
- Facilitating the development of ICT hosting and broadband connections by tertiary institutions over the Australian Research Education Network (AREN) funded fibre link to Brisbane
- Developing a vocational education training demonstrator project.
Health adviser
Dr John Youngman, who was the National Broadband Adviser for Health from December 2004 to June 2006, has engaged with health sector stakeholders in the discussion and planning of broadband initiatives.
He also provided advice to the Department of Health and Ageing, DCITA and the National Broadband Strategy Implementation Group on how best to coordinate sustainable health sector broadband strategies.
Local government adviser
Mr Rick Molony was National Broadband Adviser for Local Government from November 2005 to June 2006. His key role had been advising local governments on investing in broadband infrastructure and applications and how to make good use of them. He had also contributed to the design of Australian Government programs, including Clever Networks.