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Seventeenth Online and Communications Council Communiqué

Page Content: Seventeenth Online and Communications Council Communiqué

Thursday 12 November 2009

Australian Government, state and territory Ministers and the Australian Local Government Association met in Alice Springs today for the 17th meeting of the Online and Communications Council.

Senator the Hon. Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy chaired the meeting. The Northern Territory Minister for Information, Communications and Technology Policy, Mr Karl Hampton, hosted the meeting.

Governments were represented by:

Australian Government

Senator the Hon. Stephen Conroy (Chair)
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy

New South Wales

The Hon. Jodi McKay MP, Minister for Commerce, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Hunter, Minister for Science and Medical Research.

Victoria

The Hon John Lenders MP, Treasurer, Minister for Financial Services and Minister for Information and Communication Technology

Queensland

The Hon. Robert Schwarten MP, Minister for Public Works and Information and Communication Technology

South Australia

The Hon. Michael O’Brien MP, Minister for Employment, Training and Further Education, Minister for Road Safety and Minister for Science and Information Economy

Tasmania

The Hon. Michael Aird MLC, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development; Minister for Racing

Northern Territory

Mr Karl Hampton MLA, Minister for Information, Communications and Technology Policy, Minister for Central Australia, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Environment and Heritage, Minister for Sport and Recreation, Minister for Natural Resources, Minister for Parks and Wildlife

Australian Capital Territory

Ms Mary Porter AM MLA, Member for Ginninderra

Australian Local Government Association

Councillor Paul Braybrooks, Mayor of the Shire of Cootamundra, and Chair of the Riverina Eastern Regional Organisation of Councils (REROC)

The Hon. Lindsay Tanner MP, Minister for Finance and Deregulation from the Australian Government has submitted his apology.

The Hon. Troy Buswell MLA (Treasurer and Minister for Commerce; Science and Innovation; Housing and Works) from Western Australia submitted his apology.

Mr Jon Stanhope MLA (Minister for Business and Economic Development), from the Australian Capital Territory has submitted his apology.

An apology was also received from Councillor Geoff Lake (President of the Australian Local Government Association).

National Broadband Network

Jurisdictions represented at the meeting today strongly endorsed the concept and implementation of the National Broadband Network to benefit all Australians.

National Data Collection

The Council made a commitment to development of comprehensive and reliable data sets to assist planning and tracking progress of the digital economy including the impact of the National Broadband Network at state, regional and national levels.

Provision of communication services to Indigenous communities

Council Members endorsed a Framework for the provision of communications services to Indigenous communities.

The Framework for the provision of communications services to Indigenous communities has been developed and agreed by the members of the Online and Communications Council as a statement of joint commitment to address communications issues in Indigenous communities.

The framework highlights the availability, affordability and use of communications services in Indigenous communities, particularly in those located in remote and very remote parts of Australia, as areas requiring coordinated action across all levels of government.

Members made a commitment to work together to deliver improved communications services to Indigenous communities through identification of an agreed set of communication service standards and exploration of appropriate and affordable communication products and services.

Connected Government

Building on national frameworks endorsed by the OCC at its meeting in December 2008, and continuing the Connected Government objective, federal, state, territory and local governments have agreed to progress important initiatives including:

  • a pilot project aimed at providing citizens with the ability to deal with all levels of government for a single life event through one online process (for example, having a baby);
  • identifying synergies and opportunities to improve the environmental sustainability of all Government ICT;
  • identification of standardised ICT performance measurement across government commencing with a progressive implementation of a common ICT taxonomy;
  • scoping possible common approaches to tele-working within government;
  • investigating a consistent approach to the way that governments use names to identify an individual;
  • undertaking a national ICT project to support social inclusion, commencing with the adoption of the international standard for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2 which address access issues for a wider variety of disabilities including people with age-related illness, motor impairments and cognitive disabilities; and
  • investigate the common security standards for internet gateways to improve secure sharing of government information.

Next meeting

Members agreed that they would next meet in Brisbane, Queensland in 2010.

Media contact: John Noble 02 6271 1777

The Communiqué is also available in PDF and RTF format from the following links:

Copies of the Communiqué can also be requested by email at occ@occ.gov.au.