Albanese Government launches unmetered data trial for regional NBN satellite customers

Up to 10,000 regional Australians on NBN Sky Muster Plus will receive unmetered monthly data allowances and faster speeds as part of a new trial to boost internet quality in the bush.
 
The trial will test the capacity and reliability of satellite technology to deliver faster download speeds of up to 100 Mbps for regional customers.
 
Faster satellite services without data allowances will help expand opportunity for households and small businesses in regional and remote Australia.
 
The trial is set to begin in March and run until May 2023. If successful, the product will be made available to all customers across the satellite footprint. This work supports the Albanese Government’s election commitment to examine ways to boost monthly satellite speeds and allowances for regional and remote communities.
 
The trial has been enabled by a $480 million grant from the Albanese Government to upgrade the NBN fixed wireless services. The upgrade will allow 120,000 premises to move from the satellite footprint to fixed wireless, freeing up capacity on the Sky Muster satellite service.
 
Minister for Communications, the Hon Michelle Rowland MP said "This trial is exciting news for Australians living in regional and remote communities served by NBN Sky Muster Plus.
 
“This is the first time Sky Muster Plus customers will be able to access unmetered monthly data allowances, and if the trial is successful, could significantly boost broadband speeds in the bush.
 
“The Albanese Government is committed to narrowing the digital divide between our major cities and regional communities. Faster, more reliable speeds are critical to unlocking the digital economy, supporting remote work and education, and improving access to tele-health across the country.
 
 “From upgrades to Sky Muster Plus, fixed wireless and the fixed-line network, our Government is determined to give Australians access to the 21st century communications infrastructure they need and deserve”.

Bringing local government back to the table

As part of the Albanese Labor Government will be re-establishing the Australian Council of Local Government (ACLG).

The annual forum will put leaders of local government and the Commonwealth in one room, allowing Ministers to directly hear about the issues impacting the local government sector.

The 2023 ACLG will be held on Friday 16 June 2023 in Canberra, following the Australian Local Government Association’s (ALGA) 2023 National General Assembly of Local Government from 13-15 June.

The ACLG was first established as an annual formal meeting by then Minister for Local Government, Anthony Albanese in 2008, where over 1,000 participants meet in Canberra for a day of productive conversations and workshops.

Local Government is fundamental to the lives of each and every Australian, and the Government is committed to working closely with councils across a range of areas.

This includes providing $2.9 billion in 2022-23 to Australia’s 546 councils through its Financial Assistance Grant program, $500 million in Roads to Recovery funding, and increasing the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure program by $250 million to $750 million.

ALGA is also invited to attend meetings of the National Cabinet and the Council on Federal Financial Relations annually.

Regional Development, Local Government and Territories Minister Kristy McBain said “Bringing back the ACLG recognises the important role local governments play in delivering services to our communities, and the benefits of partnering together at all levels of government.

“This was neglected over the last decade and had a significant impact on local communities, which is why I’m so pleased that we’re delivering on our important election commitment to re-establish the ACLG.

“As a former mayor and regional councillor, I know how hard the local government sector are working for their communities. That’s why I’ll continue to stand up for them through this enhanced collaborative forum, which will bring the expertise of local government and Ministers together in one room.”

Smart Move Australia

The Smart Move Australia website provides potential migrants information about living and working in Australia and how to apply for an Australian skilled visa.

The website forms part of the 12-month international advertising campaign to attract overseas skilled workers in occupations with skills shortages, and to promote Australia as a destination of choice for skilled migrants.

NSW Ports 2023 Community Grants

NSW Ports will officially launch their 2023 Community Grants Program soon.

Program Focus Areas will include:

• Community Participation

• The provision of Community Infrastructure

• Environment & Sustainability

Selling to Government – Providing guidance to businesses on supplying to the Australian Government

The Australia Government Department of Finance’s Selling to Government website provides businesses with important information how to sell to the Australian Government, including:

·         Where to find opportunities

·         how to respond to an approach to market

·         what to expect if you are awarded a contract.

The Future Made in Australia Office, within the Department of Finance, is always looking for ways to improve the website and welcomes your feedback to inform future updates.

Your feedback can be submitted at any time via the Have Your Say form.

Minderoo Foundation's Fire and Flood Resilience initiative

Are you focused on land conservation, community resilience and/ or community engagement? Can you support a national volunteer network to help communities build fire and/or flood resilience? If you, like Minderoo, are focused on how to reduce the devastation caused by fire and flood across our great land Minderoo want to hear from you.

Australian Resilience Corps (The Corps) are looking for 4-6 partners to lead musters to help prepare communities with disaster resilience. A muster is an organised on-ground group activity, involving local community and corporate volunteers to build proactive, confident, and resilient communities through focused projects.

National Mentoring Program

Applications for round 2 of the National Mentoring Program are now open. This program is funded through the Australian Governments Future Drought Fund.

The National Mentoring Program is your chance to meet someone from anywhere in Australia to share your experience and ideas.

Mentoring connects someone with knowledge and experience in a certain area with someone with less experience. The purpose of the National Mentoring Program is to bring rural Australians with different experiences together to build leadership capacity and resilience in rural Australia. Sharing experiences, challenges, and ideas in a trusted, non-judgmental mentoring relationship is a fantastic way to accelerate personal and professional development.

Application period

Round 2: 1 February to 3 April 2023

2022 Review of the Transport Standards – public consultation now open

2022 Review of the Transport Standards – public consultation is now open 

Public consultation for the 2022 Review of the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport 2002 (Transport Standards) is open to 30 June 2023.

The Transport Standards provide requirements for public transport operators and providers to make their services accessible and remove discrimination for people with disability.

Every 5 years, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, in consultation with the Attorney-General, is required to review the efficiency and effectiveness of the Transport Standards. The review must:

• report on the effectiveness and efficiency of the Transport Standards

• report on whether discrimination has been removed as far as possible

• include any necessary amendments to the Transport Standards.

Inquiry into bank closures in regional Australia

On 8 February 2023 the matter of bank closures in regional Australia was referred to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee.

Submissions are sought on the current extent of bank closures in regional Australia, with feedback is required on:

• the branch closure process

• economic and welfare impacts on communities

• the removal of face-to-face cash services on access to cash

• the effectiveness of government banking statistics capturing and reporting regional service levels

• consideration of solutions.

Submissions close: Friday 31 March 2023, with the report to be released by 1 December 2023.

Read: Bank closures in regional Australia

Learn: how to make a submission and addressing the terms of reference

Plans to Promote Visitation to Riverina Murray Unveiled

The NSW State Government has released a roadmap to foster the growth of the Riverina Murray visitor economy through to 2030. The road map was unveiled as part of the launch of seven new Destination Management Plans (DMPs) for regional NSW and highlights the unique strengths of the Riverina Murray region

Minister for Tourism Ben Franklin said the new DMP recognised the strategic context of the state’s Visitor Economy Strategy 2030 and would pave the way for the Riverina Murray region to contribute to the targets for regional NSW within the strategy.

“Our goal is for NSW to become the premier visitor economy of the Asia Pacific by 2030, delivering $65 billion in visitor expenditure including $25 billion directly from overnight visitation to regional NSW,” Mr Franklin said.

“In the year ended December 2019 the Riverina Murray welcomed 6.2 million visitors, injecting more than $1.74 billion into the local visitor economy.

“The new Destination Management Plan identifies the unique opportunities we have in the Riverina Murray, and the stakeholders that will play a part in realising those so Government and industry can work hand-in-hand.

“We are excited to share this work with local visitor economy businesses, industry bodies and local communities so we can continue to build on, deliver and promote excellent visitor experiences that align with our goals.”

Work Bonus

If you’re an eligible pensioner, the Work Bonus may help you earn more income from working without reducing your pension.

The Work Bonus reduces the amount of your eligible income included in the income test. You can get the Work Bonus if both of these apply to you. You:

• are Age Pension age and over

• get Age Pension, Carer Payment or Disability Support Pension.

Launch into Work for business

Are you interested in designing a small-scale project with the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations in order to fill vacancies in your business?

The department of employment and workplace relations’ Launch into Work program is for businesses who want to use a pre-employment project to fill entry-level roles. This means individuals don’t require a degree or higher-level vocational qualification to commence work.

The department will work with you to design projects tailored to the roles available in your business.

You can identify the personal values, attitudes and behaviours you look for in workers. This information is used to select suitable individuals. The pre-employment project gives these individuals the skills, experience and confidence to start work.

Wagga Wagga Net Zero Emission Community Roadmap | Initial Community Consultation

Wagga Wagga City Council has committed to:

• endorse an interim community net zero emissions target of 50% reduction in community emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2050.

• develop a roadmap that outlines Council’s role in the community achieving both the 2030 and 2050 net zero emissions targets.

In December 2022 and January and February 2023, Wagga Wagga City Council is undertaking an initial community consultation in the process of writing the Wagga Wagga Community Net Zero Emissions Roadmap. The Roadmap will be a document that will be guide the Wagga Wagga LGA to be increasingly climate friendly and will be used for reporting.

The following survey forms part of the community consultation and is available to all local community members. The survey closes on Thursday 23rd February.

Applications for Farmer of the Year Awards are now open

Applications for Farmer of the Year Awards are now open, including the Rural Community Leader of the Year and Young Farmer of the Year.

Nominations are open to individuals and families involved in farming enterprises or rural communities.

Entrants can nominate themselves or be nominated by a third party.

Award winners will take part in a Leadership Program supported by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. This Major Prize, a one-day workshop aimed at leadership development within the agricultural industry, allows Award winners to develop their leadership capacity, grow industry networks and build their communication skills to represent the bright future of the industry.

The 2023 Award winners will be announced at an exclusive event at Parliament House in Canberra during June, incorporating a networking event, and a live outside broadcast of ABC Rural’s nationwide Country Hour radio program.

Nominations close on Tuesday 28 February 2023.

Regional labour markets hit record growth - but still can't meet job demand

Growth in the regional labour force surpassed the previous record levels of the mining construction boom a decade ago to hit 3.3 percent in the December 2022 quarter, according to the latest figures released by the Regional Australia Institute (RAI).  

However, labour market conditions in regional Australia remain tight, with the participation rate at its highest in more than 30 years, at 71.4 percent in December.

“Overall, regional economies and labour markets continue to outperform metropolitan markets under these much tighter conditions. In fact, we continue to see historically significant milestones reached that have set regions apart,” Liz Ritchie said.

“Despite the fact that regional people are keen and engaged to work, and population continues to grow, ultimately, we still need more people to meet this historic demand on the labour market.

“The number of jobs advertised in regional Australia in October 2022 was a record peak of 94,100 roles. While vacancies pulled back down to a little under 81,000 in December, this is still nearly a 100 percent increase on pre-pandemic levels.

“The figures for our metropolitan cities tell a different story, where job vacancy growth halted abruptly in February 2022 and recorded only one third of the growth rate experienced in regional Australia.

“Regional unemployment has been tracking lower than metropolitan unemployment over the last two years, hitting a new historic low of 2.8 percent in November and averaging 3.0 percent to round out the final quarter of 2022. Historically, the reverse has been true,” Ms Ritchie said.

In the month of December, demand for labour was highest in regional Queensland with more than 23,800 positions advertised. This is up 17.5 percent on the year earlier.

New South Wales was only slightly lower with 23,200 roles. Meanwhile, regional South Australia saw a 15.3 percent increase in annual job in vacancies. Regional Victoria recorded a 9.8 percent annual increase, with Western Australia just 2 percent – slightly lower than the 3 percent increase for mainland capital cities.

The five regions with the largest annual jumps in job vacancies for December 2022 were:

·       Yorke Peninsula and Clare Valley, SA – Up by 33%

·       Central Queensland – up by 28.8%

·       Outback Queensland – up by 25.4 %

·       Tamworth and North West NSW – up by 25.3%

·       Blue Mountains, Bathurst and Central West NSW – up by 20.1%

To ensure Australia’s regional workforce is ‘fit-for-purpose’ in the future, the RAI has identified Jobs and Skills as one of the 5 key pillars in its Regionalisation Ambition 2032 – A Framework to Rebalance the Nation.

To achieve the goal within the Jobs and Skills pillar, the Regionalisation Ambition 2032 sets out the following targets:

By 2032:

• Reduce the recruitment difficulty in regional Australia from 77% today to below 40%.

• Increase the share of skilled workers employed in regional Australia from 73% as at May 2022 to 80% of the regional workforce.

• Increase the Year 12 school attainment rate of young people in regional Australia from an average of 65% today to 75% or above.

• Boost post-school qualification completion in regional Australia to 65% or above from 57% as at May 2021.

For a full copy of the RAI’s Regional Labour Market Update – December Quarter 2022, please click here.

The RAI will launch its first Annual Regional Labour Market Report at its Regions Rising event in Bunbury, Western Australia, on Friday 10 March. 

Griffith is Home to Australia's Best Street Art Laneway Experience

An unobtrusive laneway that parallels Griffith’s main thoroughfare has been named as the best street art laneway experience in Australia.

Banna Lane has received the Gold gong for Best Street Art Laneway at the 2022 Australian Street Art Awards announced from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast last night.

Banna Lane nudged out Austin Lane – the birthplace of the Darwin Street Art festival, which took the Silver Award, and Bidencopes Lane in the heart of Hobart CBD, which secured the Bronze Award.

The Australian Street Art Awards, a tourism awards for public art program, encourage Australians to explore the world-class street and public art that is freely accessible all year round and found in every corner of the country.

Banna Lane runs for about a kilometre and boasts 19 pieces of public artwork produced by some of Australia's best and emerging artists. The styles are varied, making the lane way diverse, capturing the many aspects of life in Griffith. They include Wiradjuri, typography, abstract, photorealism, graphic and illustrative.

Awards Director Liz Rivers said, “This unique laneway contributes significantly to making Australia a more vibrant, creative and interesting country – somewhere visitors want to explore more keenly.”

“Smart communities promote their outdoor art, as a unique landmark – an attraction that visitors can see in only place, and that makes their destination immediately identifiable, highly attractive and a drawcard for art-loving tourists,” Ms Rivers said.

“Investing in outdoor art as an attraction mechanism also makes economic sense as art is typically less expensive to create than more traditional tourism attractions while the pay-off is handsome,” she said.

Domestic arts tourists are high value visitors – they stay almost one-and-a-half times longer and spend about one-and-a-half times more per day than domestic tourists overall, according to an Australia Council for the Arts’ Domestic Art Tourism: Connecting the Country Report.

In commenting on Banna Lane’s win, the judges congratulated the organisers of the Banna Lane Festival for ensuring new artwork is produced annually to promote return visitation.

“We love how artists are required to create a connection to the city of Griffith through the subject of their artwork – it is a brilliant way to continue the region’s story,” the judges said.

One such mural is Nonna’s Table by Claire Foxton, which visually captures both the Riverina’s rich citrus farming history and the city’s strong Italian culture. This mural snagged Silver in the highly coveted Best External Mural category, while the Banna Lane Festival took out the Silver Award in the Best Street Art Festival or Event category.

$750 million funded through Phase 4 of the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program

The Local Roads and Community Infrastructure (LRCI) Program supports all Australian councils to deliver priority local road and community infrastructure projects in their region, creating jobs and long-lasting benefits for communities.

The Australian Government is committed to working in partnership with local, state and territory governments to deliver services and build infrastructure that delivers benefits and supports jobs in local communities. To continue this support, the Government has committed an additional $250 million to Phase 4 of the LRCI program, on top of the previously announced $500 million – taking the total Australian Government commitment to the program to $3.25 billion.

Councils will be able to access their Phase 4 funding allocations from July 2023, with projects to be delivered by June 2025.

Guidelines and grant agreements will be finalised by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts over the coming months.

In the Riverina region, funding was allocated to Bland Shire Council ($1,849,827), Carrathool Shire Council ($1,456,711), Coolamon Shire Council ($772,445), Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council ($985,552), Griffith City Council ($1,030,641), Hay Shire Council ($508,687), Junee Shire Council ($587,934), Leeton Shire Council ($656,388), Lockhart Shire Council ($846,561), Murrumbidgee Council ($1,008,021), Narrandera Shire Council ($997,363), Snowy Valleys Council ($871,816), Temora Shire Council ($825,968), and Wagga Wagga City Council ($2,050,700).

Regional Australia Institute releases Regional Labour Market Update for the December Quarter

The Regional Australia Institute has released the Regional Labour Market update for the December Quarter 2022, revealing that regional economies and labour markets continue to outperform metro markets.

Image source: https://www.regionalaustralia.org.au/Web/Toolkits-Indexes/Regional-Jobs-Update/Updates/2023/Regional-Labour-Market-Update-December-Quarter-2022.aspx

Job vacancies in the regions reached a record peak of 94,100 in October 2022, while dropping to 81,000 in December 2022 - nearly double the pre-pandemic monthly average.

Image source: https://www.regionalaustralia.org.au/Web/Toolkits-Indexes/Regional-Jobs-Update/Updates/2023/Regional-Labour-Market-Update-December-Quarter-2022.aspx

Regional unemployment averaged only 3% this quarter, with a high demand for labour across all regions. The regional participation rate reached 71.4% in May 2022 - the highest rate in more than 30 years. Net migration to regional areas remains above pre-pandemic levels, however this increase in the regional labour force is not happening quickly enough to meet demand.

The high demand for labour in regions is underscored by:

• High and enduring business confidence and conditions - favourabloe economic conditions in regions, domestic tourism growth, high commodity prices

• Reigonal population growth - migration from cities

• Ongoing expansion of the services sector - expansion of labour-intensive service industries e.g. health, education, aged care, childcare

The constraints and dynamics on the supply side of the regional labour force include:

• The pool of workers ready and available to work has almost dried up

• High labour mobility - employers need to backfill jobs more than usual

• Closed international border - long-term and short-term migrants and sources of seasonal transient labour have not returned to pre-pandemic levels

• Local skills mismatch - less opportunity for VET and tertiary learning in regions

• Gaps in key regional soft and hard infrastructure - e.g. housing, childcare

RDA Riverina continues to work on addressing these challenges in our region with our workforce development plan.

Singapore-Australia Green Economy Agreement (GEA)

On 18 October 2022, Australia and Singapore signed the Singapore-Australia Green Economy Agreement (GEA).

The GEA is a first-of-its-kind agreement that supports Australia’s economic, trade, investment and climate change objectives.

Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems is one of the GEA’s 17 joint initiatives.

Under the GEA, Australia and Singapore will collaborate on ideas and initiatives that accelerate the transition to best practice sustainable agri-food systems. The aim is to:

• support food security

• limit the effects of climate change

• reduce the impact of agri-food systems on the environment.

Celebrating Australian Food and Agribusiness Innovations

From edible insects to revolutionary packaging creations, the Food and Agribusiness Growth Centre (FIAL) has released the seventh edition of its flagship publication - Celebrating Australian Food and Agribusiness Innovations, showcasing Australian innovation and ingenuity in the agrifood sector.