Digital Roadmap

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (14:49): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation a question about the digital roadmap.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: In a media release from 28 June this year, the minister claimed that the government had provided $2.9 million for Gig City's expansion into additional precincts, as well as the development of a digital roadmap for the state. My questions to the minister:

1. Will the digital roadmap apply to the whole of government or will it be DSD-specific?

2. How will the digital roadmap referred to in the minister's media release differ from the Department of Treasury and Finance's digital roadmap of 2016 to 2018?

3. How much of the $2.9 million will be allocated to the development of the roadmap, and who will take the lead in the development of the roadmap?

4. How does the digital roadmap fit into the government's wider innovation strategy?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (14:50): I thank the honourable member for his question and his interest in this area. I might address that in a couple of parts because he referred to a number of areas in there. I will do it briefly. In relation to the Gig City program, it is true that, in last year's budget, about $5 million was provided for the establishment of the Gig City project which piggy-backed off the SABRENet network, which three universities are co-owners of. The state government also has a share in the SABRENet network—a dark-fibre network that operates right across, from the north to the south of our metropolitan area.

We are the only state that has ownership of part of that universities' fibre network, which is why we could leverage off that and offer up the fibre network to innovation precincts across Adelaide when no other city could. What that's done is allow us to become the first Gig City, a city with precincts right across the metropolitan area that are gigabit internet speed-capable—that is, symmetrical, upload and download speeds of at least one gig and, with the right infrastructure, up to 10 gigabits per second—which has given us quite a distinct competitive advantage in how we market ourselves and our capabilities in terms of being connected to the rest of the world.

We are seeing companies that have a presence already in Adelaide moving offices from other cities to Adelaide on the back of that because it is cheaper to be connected to exceptionally fast internet speeds and, frankly, the internet speeds that they can't find anywhere else in Australia as a result of the Gig City project in some of those 10 or 11 precincts that are already connected, with more to come online.

In this year's budget, there was funding to expand that Gig City program. We have a memorandum of understanding with the University of South Australia and both the Mount Gambier and Whyalla councils. The AARNet—the federal universities' fibre network—was recently taken down to Mount Gambier's University of South Australia campus with a juncture from around the Keith or Bordertown area where it goes between Adelaide and Melbourne. It is also—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: You are killing my old farm.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: The Hon. David Ridgway says it's through his old farm, which would be very good if his farm is being ploughed up for the economies of the future. We are looking to expand that to co-working space in both of those regional locations in Mount Gambier and Whyalla because, of course, for many endeavours today, it really doesn't matter where in the world you are, if you are quickly connected via the internet to the rest of the world.

In relation to the digital roadmap, what we are looking to do is, not just within government but across South Australia and our economy, look at the best ways to exploit the infrastructure that we have, which is what we have done with the Gig City network using the SABRENet network, which is what we are looking to do with the AARNet network in Whyalla and Mount Gambier. We will look to see what other infrastructure and what other programs we can do to expand out the digital network we have to benefit the rest of the economy.