❓ The Minister for Energy outlines initiatives to improve wellbeing in remote Indigenous communities, focusing on broadband access in the Kimberley and Ngaanyatjarra lands, and normalised power pricing through LNG infrastructure.
AnsweredQoN 218Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES — BROADBAND INITIATIVES
Can the minister please inform the house of any recent initiative that will improve the wellbeing of people living in the Indigenous communities of remote Western Australia? Mr F.M. LOGAN
Can the minister please inform the house of any recent initiative that will improve the wellbeing of people living in the Indigenous communities of remote Western Australia? Mr F.M. LOGAN
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question. I have some very good news. We hear many sad stories coming out of remote Indigenous communities in Western Australia and other states of Australia. We do not often hear the good news stories that emerge from those areas, and there are some very good stories, two of which I have been involved in just recently. One was the provision of broadband services to the Kimberley region and also to the Ngaanyatjarra lands in the western desert of Western Australia. NewSat Ltd has a contract with the Department of Industry and Resources, which coordinated on behalf of many agencies of the Western Australian government and the commonwealth, to deliver high-speed broadband services to the whole of the Kimberley but in particular to all of the significant Indigenous communities in the Kimberley. I was at the Ardyaloon community in One Arm Point a couple of weeks ago, where the system has been installed. Not only does it deliver high-speed broadband to the council offices of Ardyaloon but there is also a wireless repeater on the roof of the Ardyaloon Council that gives wireless coverage of 30 kilometres around the community. At the top of the Dampier Peninsula it is possible to be on a laptop getting broadband speeds of 2.5 megabytes, which is very, very good. It is certainly better than the speeds available in Victoria Park and other metropolitan areas. That is sensational. That technology will transform that community for the purposes of education and health, for the delivery of justice and services and for the purposes of growing their own businesses, such as the fishery and shellfish business that people are trying to grow up there. It will help them to communicate directly with their customers. Similar transformations will occur in the Ngaanyatjarra lands in the western desert and the six communities that have been provided with high-speed broadband services—Wingellina, Warburton, Jameson, Blackstone, Wanarn and Warakurna. They are all connected by fibre-optic cable all the way back to Alice Springs. They have very high speed broadband because it is not delivered by wireless but by fibre-optic cable. For example, sick people can receive a real-time diagnosis from specialists not only in Perth and Kalgoorlie, but also anywhere in the world. People in very remote locations can be examined real-time by specialists through videoconferencing. Those types of technologies will transform the lives of people who live in remote communities. The western Kimberley power procurement project has come to the end of its first stage. I refer to the construction of the mini-LNG plant by Energy Generation—also known as enGen—which is contracted to Horizon Power to deliver that service in Karratha; the trucking of LNG by road trains three times a day from Karratha to Broome; the establishment of a brand new power station in Broome that runs on LNG; and the LNG storage tank in Broome and the distribution of that LNG to remote Indigenous communities that have had their power normalised. The large Indigenous communities that were once held hostage to the cost of the delivery of diesel now pay the same price for their electricity as those communities who live in the metropolitan region. Ultimately, that will turn the communities around financially, because they will not have to use most of their income to pay for diesel. These are great stories. Unfortunately, we do not hear enough of them in this chamber.
Mr F.M. LOGAN replied: I thank the member for the question. I have some very good news. We hear many sad stories coming out of remote Indigenous communities in Western Australia and other states of Australia. We do not often hear the good news stories that emerge from those areas, and there are some very good stories, two of which I have been involved in just recently. One was the provision of broadband services to the Kimberley region and also to the Ngaanyatjarra lands in the western desert of Western Australia. NewSat Ltd has a contract with the Department of Industry and Resources, which coordinated on behalf of many agencies of the Western Australian government and the commonwealth, to deliver high-speed broadband services to the whole of the Kimberley but in particular to all of the significant Indigenous communities in the Kimberley. I was at the Ardyaloon community in One Arm Point a couple of weeks ago, where the system has been installed. Not only does it deliver high-speed broadband to the council offices of Ardyaloon but there is also a wireless repeater on the roof of the Ardyaloon Council that gives wireless coverage of 30 kilometres around the community. At the top of the Dampier Peninsula it is possible to be on a laptop getting broadband speeds of 2.5 megabytes, which is very, very good. It is certainly better than the speeds available in Victoria Park and other metropolitan areas. That is sensational. That technology will transform that community for the purposes of education and health, for the delivery of justice and services and for the purposes of growing their own businesses, such as the fishery and shellfish business that people are trying to grow up there. It will help them to communicate directly with their customers. Similar transformations will occur in the Ngaanyatjarra lands in the western desert and the six communities that have been provided with high-speed broadband services—Wingellina, Warburton, Jameson, Blackstone, Wanarn and Warakurna. They are all connected by fibre-optic cable all the way back to Alice Springs. They have very high speed broadband because it is not delivered by wireless but by fibre-optic cable. For example, sick people can receive a real-time diagnosis from specialists not only in Perth and Kalgoorlie, but also anywhere in the world. People in very remote locations can be examined real-time by specialists through videoconferencing. Those types of technologies will transform the lives of people who live in remote communities. The western Kimberley power procurement project has come to the end of its first stage. I refer to the construction of the mini-LNG plant by Energy Generation—also known as enGen—which is contracted to Horizon Power to deliver that service in Karratha; the trucking of LNG by road trains three times a day from Karratha to Broome; the establishment of a brand new power station in Broome that runs on LNG; and the LNG storage tank in Broome and the distribution of that LNG to remote Indigenous communities that have had their power normalised. The large Indigenous communities that were once held hostage to the cost of the delivery of diesel now pay the same price for their electricity as those communities who live in the metropolitan region. Ultimately, that will turn the communities around financially, because they will not have to use most of their income to pay for diesel. These are great stories. Unfortunately, we do not hear enough of them in this chamber.
I thank the member for the question. I have some very good news. We hear many sad stories coming out of remote Indigenous communities in Western Australia and other states of Australia. We do not often hear the good news stories that emerge from those areas, and there are some very good stories, two of which I have been involved in just recently. One was the provision of broadband services to the Kimberley region and also to the Ngaanyatjarra lands in the western desert of Western Australia. NewSat Ltd has a contract with the Department of Industry and Resources, which coordinated on behalf of many agencies of the Western Australian government and the commonwealth, to deliver high-speed broadband services to the whole of the Kimberley but in particular to all of the significant Indigenous communities in the Kimberley. I was at the Ardyaloon community in One Arm Point a couple of weeks ago, where the system has been installed. Not only does it deliver high-speed broadband to the council offices of Ardyaloon but there is also a wireless repeater on the roof of the Ardyaloon Council that gives wireless coverage of 30 kilometres around the community. At the top of the Dampier Peninsula it is possible to be on a laptop getting broadband speeds of 2.5 megabytes, which is very, very good. It is certainly better than the speeds available in Victoria Park and other metropolitan areas. That is sensational. That technology will transform that community for the purposes of education and health, for the delivery of justice and services and for the purposes of growing their own businesses, such as the fishery and shellfish business that people are trying to grow up there. It will help them to communicate directly with their customers. Similar transformations will occur in the Ngaanyatjarra lands in the western desert and the six communities that have been provided with high-speed broadband services—Wingellina, Warburton, Jameson, Blackstone, Wanarn and Warakurna. They are all connected by fibre-optic cable all the way back to Alice Springs. They have very high speed broadband because it is not delivered by wireless but by fibre-optic cable. For example, sick people can receive a real-time diagnosis from specialists not only in Perth and Kalgoorlie, but also anywhere in the world. People in very remote locations can be examined real-time by specialists through videoconferencing. Those types of technologies will transform the lives of people who live in remote communities. The western Kimberley power procurement project has come to the end of its first stage. I refer to the construction of the mini-LNG plant by Energy Generation—also known as enGen—which is contracted to Horizon Power to deliver that service in Karratha; the trucking of LNG by road trains three times a day from Karratha to Broome; the establishment of a brand new power station in Broome that runs on LNG; and the LNG storage tank in Broome and the distribution of that LNG to remote Indigenous communities that have had their power normalised. The large Indigenous communities that were once held hostage to the cost of the delivery of diesel now pay the same price for their electricity as those communities who live in the metropolitan region. Ultimately, that will turn the communities around financially, because they will not have to use most of their income to pay for diesel. These are great stories. Unfortunately, we do not hear enough of them in this chamber.
That technology will transform that community for the purposes of education and health, for the delivery of justice and services and for the purposes of growing their own businesses, such as the fishery and shellfish business that people are trying to grow up there. It will help them to communicate directly with their customers. Similar transformations will occur in the Ngaanyatjarra lands in the western desert and the six communities that have been provided with high-speed broadband services—Wingellina, Warburton, Jameson, Blackstone, Wanarn and Warakurna. They are all connected by fibre-optic cable all the way back to Alice Springs. They have very high speed broadband because it is not delivered by wireless but by fibre-optic cable. For example, sick people can receive a real-time diagnosis from specialists not only in Perth and Kalgoorlie, but also anywhere in the world. People in very remote locations can be examined real-time by specialists through videoconferencing. Those types of technologies will transform the lives of people who live in remote communities. The western Kimberley power procurement project has come to the end of its first stage. I refer to the construction of the mini-LNG plant by Energy Generation—also known as enGen—which is contracted to Horizon Power to deliver that service in Karratha; the trucking of LNG by road trains three times a day from Karratha to Broome; the establishment of a brand new power station in Broome that runs on LNG; and the LNG storage tank in Broome and the distribution of that LNG to remote Indigenous communities that have had their power normalised. The large Indigenous communities that were once held hostage to the cost of the delivery of diesel now pay the same price for their electricity as those communities who live in the metropolitan region. Ultimately, that will turn the communities around financially, because they will not have to use most of their income to pay for diesel. These are great stories. Unfortunately, we do not hear enough of them in this chamber.
The western Kimberley power procurement project has come to the end of its first stage. I refer to the construction of the mini-LNG plant by Energy Generation—also known as enGen—which is contracted to Horizon Power to deliver that service in Karratha; the trucking of LNG by road trains three times a day from Karratha to Broome; the establishment of a brand new power station in Broome that runs on LNG; and the LNG storage tank in Broome and the distribution of that LNG to remote Indigenous communities that have had their power normalised. The large Indigenous communities that were once held hostage to the cost of the delivery of diesel now pay the same price for their electricity as those communities who live in the metropolitan region. Ultimately, that will turn the communities around financially, because they will not have to use most of their income to pay for diesel. These are great stories. Unfortunately, we do not hear enough of them in this chamber.
Mr F.M. LOGAN replied: I thank the member for the question. I have some very good news. We hear many sad stories coming out of remote Indigenous communities in Western Australia and other states of Australia. We do not often hear the good news stories that emerge from those areas, and there are some very good stories, two of which I have been involved in just recently. One was the provision of broadband services to the Kimberley region and also to the Ngaanyatjarra lands in the western desert of Western Australia. NewSat Ltd has a contract with the Department of Industry and Resources, which coordinated on behalf of many agencies of the Western Australian government and the commonwealth, to deliver high-speed broadband services to the whole of the Kimberley but in particular to all of the significant Indigenous communities in the Kimberley. I was at the Ardyaloon community in One Arm Point a couple of weeks ago, where the system has been installed. Not only does it deliver high-speed broadband to the council offices of Ardyaloon but there is also a wireless repeater on the roof of the Ardyaloon Council that gives wireless coverage of 30 kilometres around the community. At the top of the Dampier Peninsula it is possible to be on a laptop getting broadband speeds of 2.5 megabytes, which is very, very good. It is certainly better than the speeds available in Victoria Park and other metropolitan areas. That is sensational. That technology will transform that community for the purposes of education and health, for the delivery of justice and services and for the purposes of growing their own businesses, such as the fishery and shellfish business that people are trying to grow up there. It will help them to communicate directly with their customers. Similar transformations will occur in the Ngaanyatjarra lands in the western desert and the six communities that have been provided with high-speed broadband services—Wingellina, Warburton, Jameson, Blackstone, Wanarn and Warakurna. They are all connected by fibre-optic cable all the way back to Alice Springs. They have very high speed broadband because it is not delivered by wireless but by fibre-optic cable. For example, sick people can receive a real-time diagnosis from specialists not only in Perth and Kalgoorlie, but also anywhere in the world. People in very remote locations can be examined real-time by specialists through videoconferencing. Those types of technologies will transform the lives of people who live in remote communities. The western Kimberley power procurement project has come to the end of its first stage. I refer to the construction of the mini-LNG plant by Energy Generation—also known as enGen—which is contracted to Horizon Power to deliver that service in Karratha; the trucking of LNG by road trains three times a day from Karratha to Broome; the establishment of a brand new power station in Broome that runs on LNG; and the LNG storage tank in Broome and the distribution of that LNG to remote Indigenous communities that have had their power normalised. The large Indigenous communities that were once held hostage to the cost of the delivery of diesel now pay the same price for their electricity as those communities who live in the metropolitan region. Ultimately, that will turn the communities around financially, because they will not have to use most of their income to pay for diesel. These are great stories. Unfortunately, we do not hear enough of them in this chamber.
I thank the member for the question. I have some very good news. We hear many sad stories coming out of remote Indigenous communities in Western Australia and other states of Australia. We do not often hear the good news stories that emerge from those areas, and there are some very good stories, two of which I have been involved in just recently. One was the provision of broadband services to the Kimberley region and also to the Ngaanyatjarra lands in the western desert of Western Australia. NewSat Ltd has a contract with the Department of Industry and Resources, which coordinated on behalf of many agencies of the Western Australian government and the commonwealth, to deliver high-speed broadband services to the whole of the Kimberley but in particular to all of the significant Indigenous communities in the Kimberley. I was at the Ardyaloon community in One Arm Point a couple of weeks ago, where the system has been installed. Not only does it deliver high-speed broadband to the council offices of Ardyaloon but there is also a wireless repeater on the roof of the Ardyaloon Council that gives wireless coverage of 30 kilometres around the community. At the top of the Dampier Peninsula it is possible to be on a laptop getting broadband speeds of 2.5 megabytes, which is very, very good. It is certainly better than the speeds available in Victoria Park and other metropolitan areas. That is sensational. That technology will transform that community for the purposes of education and health, for the delivery of justice and services and for the purposes of growing their own businesses, such as the fishery and shellfish business that people are trying to grow up there. It will help them to communicate directly with their customers. Similar transformations will occur in the Ngaanyatjarra lands in the western desert and the six communities that have been provided with high-speed broadband services—Wingellina, Warburton, Jameson, Blackstone, Wanarn and Warakurna. They are all connected by fibre-optic cable all the way back to Alice Springs. They have very high speed broadband because it is not delivered by wireless but by fibre-optic cable. For example, sick people can receive a real-time diagnosis from specialists not only in Perth and Kalgoorlie, but also anywhere in the world. People in very remote locations can be examined real-time by specialists through videoconferencing. Those types of technologies will transform the lives of people who live in remote communities. The western Kimberley power procurement project has come to the end of its first stage. I refer to the construction of the mini-LNG plant by Energy Generation—also known as enGen—which is contracted to Horizon Power to deliver that service in Karratha; the trucking of LNG by road trains three times a day from Karratha to Broome; the establishment of a brand new power station in Broome that runs on LNG; and the LNG storage tank in Broome and the distribution of that LNG to remote Indigenous communities that have had their power normalised. The large Indigenous communities that were once held hostage to the cost of the delivery of diesel now pay the same price for their electricity as those communities who live in the metropolitan region. Ultimately, that will turn the communities around financially, because they will not have to use most of their income to pay for diesel. These are great stories. Unfortunately, we do not hear enough of them in this chamber.
That technology will transform that community for the purposes of education and health, for the delivery of justice and services and for the purposes of growing their own businesses, such as the fishery and shellfish business that people are trying to grow up there. It will help them to communicate directly with their customers. Similar transformations will occur in the Ngaanyatjarra lands in the western desert and the six communities that have been provided with high-speed broadband services—Wingellina, Warburton, Jameson, Blackstone, Wanarn and Warakurna. They are all connected by fibre-optic cable all the way back to Alice Springs. They have very high speed broadband because it is not delivered by wireless but by fibre-optic cable. For example, sick people can receive a real-time diagnosis from specialists not only in Perth and Kalgoorlie, but also anywhere in the world. People in very remote locations can be examined real-time by specialists through videoconferencing. Those types of technologies will transform the lives of people who live in remote communities. The western Kimberley power procurement project has come to the end of its first stage. I refer to the construction of the mini-LNG plant by Energy Generation—also known as enGen—which is contracted to Horizon Power to deliver that service in Karratha; the trucking of LNG by road trains three times a day from Karratha to Broome; the establishment of a brand new power station in Broome that runs on LNG; and the LNG storage tank in Broome and the distribution of that LNG to remote Indigenous communities that have had their power normalised. The large Indigenous communities that were once held hostage to the cost of the delivery of diesel now pay the same price for their electricity as those communities who live in the metropolitan region. Ultimately, that will turn the communities around financially, because they will not have to use most of their income to pay for diesel. These are great stories. Unfortunately, we do not hear enough of them in this chamber.
The western Kimberley power procurement project has come to the end of its first stage. I refer to the construction of the mini-LNG plant by Energy Generation—also known as enGen—which is contracted to Horizon Power to deliver that service in Karratha; the trucking of LNG by road trains three times a day from Karratha to Broome; the establishment of a brand new power station in Broome that runs on LNG; and the LNG storage tank in Broome and the distribution of that LNG to remote Indigenous communities that have had their power normalised. The large Indigenous communities that were once held hostage to the cost of the delivery of diesel now pay the same price for their electricity as those communities who live in the metropolitan region. Ultimately, that will turn the communities around financially, because they will not have to use most of their income to pay for diesel. These are great stories. Unfortunately, we do not hear enough of them in this chamber.
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