Opinion: Better access to internet must be a priority for both federal and Territory governments

New figures show a stunning number of Territory households don’t have an internet connection, in a troubling sign for efforts to bridge the access divide between remote communities and important services.

IT’S a massive understatement to say that the internet has played a transformative role in society today.

Many of us a week ago were up late into the night to livestream a rocket blasting off from Nhulunbuy, in the remotest areas of the Top End. That’s a level of technological interconnectivity few could’ve imagined even a couple of decades ago.

In the space of medicine, telehealth appointments have become a genuine way to provide treatment to those hundreds or even thousands of kilometres away from the nearest clinic. It’s come into the mainstream just in time for the pandemic, when even those with good access to health services may not be able to see a doctor in person.

And much has been said about how the world wide web allows anyone to access training and education remotely, from wherever they find themselves. This should be opening doors for regional and remote Australians.

Thousands streamed the rocket launch from Nhulunbuy a week ago. Photo by NASA / AFP

Theoretically this should reduce the imbalance between remote and metropolitan Australia, between one Australia with lacking infrastructure and few opportunities, and one with plenty of both.

But the latest NT government glossy brochure on infrastructure makes clear there’s still a fair bit of work to be done bringing access to Territorians.

For instance, it hails that 61,608 homes have been connected to the NBN, of the 96,140 homes in the Territory that are “ready to connect”.

In a nutshell, it’s saying one in three households in the Territory don’t have fast, reliable internet access.

Part of this may be because they don’t need it. Many people get by just using their 4G phones.

But it’s a timely reminder this is a key issue, particularly in remote communities and one which may be denying many Territorians access to key services.

Remote Territorians have experienced outages in recent months. Photo Erica Murree / Central & North Burnett Times

Labor has long talked about the postcode lottery when it comes to healthcare and education.

Bill Shorten for years talked about how it should be “your Medicare card, not your credit card”, that determines your access to healthcare. And he’s right.

The NT government in recent months has sharply criticised the telecommunications companies over outages in remote communities.

But at the same time, expanding access to the National Broadband Network has barely registered in recent policy.

This isn’t just rolling out cables – it’s also about making access affordable.

It’s apparent the internet is becoming an indispensable utility, in the same vein as running water and electricity.

To not have access to the internet is to be denied the same advantages that everyone else in society has. But many families that are struggling to pay the bills right now may have to make hard choices.

It’s all well and good to publish the figures in a glossy brochure but it’s another thing to adopt policies that seek to get more people online.

With households feeling the squeeze, now would be a good time for both levels of government to come up with solutions to give Territorians equal access to the net.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said there were a ‘further’ 96,140 homes left to connect to the NBN. These figures were taken verbatim from the NT government report ‘NT Infrastructure Plan and Pipeline’. The NT News was later informed by NBN that the 96,140 homes were the total number of households with access to the NBN.