A majority Liberal government will:
- Increase our investment into the digital economy by a further $8.5 million over four years. This includes:
- Investing $4.3 million to begin development of a digital Service Tasmania portal to provide Tasmanians with a secure and easy-to-use access point for Government services, accessed through a single login.
- Doubling funding to $700,000 over four years for the Digital Ready for Daily Life program to ensure vulnerable Tasmanians are not left behind in an increasingly digital world.
- Supporting skills by extending funding to the Digital Ready for Business program, the Enterprize innovation hubs in Hobart and Launceston as well as delivering an additional hub for the North West, as well as taking the successful Project Springboard pilot to a fully developed program, investing an additional $2.18 million.
- Backing an exciting initiative to position Tasmania as a significant contributor to the nation’s ambitions in space research and development, with a new $330,000 investment*.
- Providing $300,000 towards a $1.1 million project to transition nine regional school sites from limited bandwidth fixed wireless to high speed optical fibre connections*.
- Contributing $1 million for telecommunications infrastructure upgrades on King Island. This transformative project will deliver better mobile coverage and faster data speeds, unlocking access for residents to superior health services, education and emergency management, helping business growth, and assisting visitors to the Island with the latest communications technology.
- Implementing an updated framework for technology procurement, making it easier for ICT businesses to transact with Government for IT products and services.
Advances in technology are helping Tasmanian businesses raise their profiles, market their products across the nation and the globe, operate more efficiently and create more jobs.
Since coming to Government, the Tasmanian Liberal Government has worked tirelessly to;
- Create opportunities for Tasmanian businesses to compete and prosper in an increasingly digital and online economy
- Support Tasmanians to grow their digital skills
- Stimulate innovation and support our growing start-up community
- Provide enhanced digital infrastructure across the state
- Enhance key partnerships with industry, and
- Make it easier for Tasmanian ICT businesses to transact with Government for products and services
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will:
Invest $4.3 million to begin development of a digital Service Tasmania portal to provide Tasmanians with a secure and easy-to-use access point for Government services
The network of Service Tasmania store fronts across the state have for many decades been at the forefront of bringing Government services for Tasmanians.
Under a re-elected Majority Liberal Government, Service Tasmania shops will remain in place for Tasmanians who prefer face to face transactions and personalised assistance.
However, as an increasingly digital society, the community expects and deserves the option of simple, quick and secure access to online Tasmanian Government services.
We know that harnessing the potential of digital technologies will deliver better quality services to the community, saving time and effort for Tasmanians who wish to use them.
This is backed up by our data, which shows that more and more Tasmanians are choosing to use online services where possible.
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will invest $4.3 million to begin development of a one-stop Service Tasmania digital service platform, offering a centralised and seamless digital portal, accessed through a single login.
When complete, the secure Service Tasmania digital platform will feature an accessible and user-friendly interface, offering anywhere, anytime, any device access to Government services, with integration to the Commonwealth’s MyGov portal.
Double funding to $700,000 for four years for the Digital Ready for Daily Life program to ensure vulnerable Tasmanians are not left behind in an increasingly digital world
The Tasmanian Liberals are committed to helping develop the digital skills of Tasmanians, particularly the more vulnerable in our community.
The Australian Digital Inclusion Index has confirmed that since coming to Government in 2014, digital inclusion in our community has risen by a total of 8.1 per cent and the gap between Tasmania and the national average has narrowed.
To support this upward trend, in 2018 the Government partnered with the Tasmanian Council of Social Service (TasCOSS) to initiate the state’s first ever digital inclusion program; Digital Ready for Daily Life.
This program provides targeted training across the state to connect Tasmanians with online access and digital training in their local communities.
If re-elected, a Majority Liberal Government will double and extend our current level of funding to $700,000 through to 2025, boosting our commitment to Digital Ready for Daily Life and allowing deeper engagement with communities to address digital inclusion.
Support skills by extending funding to the long running Digital Ready for Business program, the Enterprize innovation hubs in Hobart and Launceston, and Project Springboard, investing an additional $2.18 million
The Tasmanian Liberals are committed to backing businesses to offer their products and services around the world, assisting start-ups and businesses to create more local jobs.
As a small, agile state and leveraging our advanced National Broadband Network that includes the highest proportion of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) connections in the country, Tasmania is in a unique position to respond to rapid advances in technology.
$700,000 for the Digital Ready for Business program
The long-running Digital Ready for Business program continues to have great success at upskilling small businesses to better participate in the digital economy through a suite of free-to-use tools, including one-on-one mentoring advice.
Through the COVID pandemic, Digital Ready for Business has been critical to ensuring business continuity and helping businesses identify new markets for their products and services.
In response, we’ve provided additional investment to double digital coaching sessions and have engaged a specialist small business cyber-security advisor to provide customised advice and coaching assistance to businesses.
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will invest an additional $700,000 to extend the program through to 2025, helping businesses to recover and grow and continue their digital journey.
$1.34m for the Enterprize start-up hubs
We recognise that all businesses start small, and the Tasmanian Liberal Government is committed to backing individuals and start-ups to turn their concepts into real-world products and services.
In 2016, the Liberal Government provided seed funding to develop the Enterprize Hubs in Launceston and Hobart, which are uniting a healthy and burgeoning community of entrepreneurs.
The hubs are seeing steady increases in activity, with up to a hundred daily attendees and a variety of events which have attracted over 12,000 attendees in 2019 alone.
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will boost our commitment to Enterprize by $1.34m, providing certainty to the start-up community through to 2025.
This includes a new investment of $500,000 to deliver an additional start-up hub in Burnie, providing the program and event outreach into Devonport and Ulverstone through a partnership with the Cradle Coast Authority and its member councils, as well as employment of a full-time Community Manager*.
$100,000 for Project Springboard
Developed with the support of TasICT in response to the displacement of employees from the COVID pandemic, the Project Springboard pilot program provided nine participants with an ICT skills pathway internship, supported by networking, mentoring and coaching.
The pilot program has had great success, with seven of the nine participants securing part-time or full-time employment in the sector.
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will commit $100,000 to take the Project Springboard pilot to a fully developed program for 20 - 30 participants, in consultation with Tasmanian businesses in priority sectors.
Deeper engagement with the ICT sector
Uniting key ICT stakeholders with the Minister and senior Government officials, our bi-annual industry summits have proven beneficial to progressing opportunities for the sector, as well as shaping Government policy.
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will commit to continuing these twice a year summits, shared between the north and the south of the state.
Back an exciting initiative to position Tasmania as a significant contributor to the nation’s ambitions in space research and development, with a new $330,000 investment
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will look to the stars for a bold new Tasmanian industry, to make our State a significant contributor to the nation’s ambitions in space research and development.
Building on the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Australian Space Agency and the Tasmanian Government in 2019, we will establish an exciting new initiative focussed on positioning Tasmania as the prime location and leader of Australia’s sovereign Space Domain Awareness (SDA) capabilities.
The ‘Team Tasmania’ partnership between the Tasmanian Government, the University of Tasmania and HENSOLDT, a global leader in space radar technology, will seek to attract domestic and international investment, a skilled workforce, start-ups, and national and international expertise.
Combining Tasmania’s unique southern geography which makes our state perfectly placed to observe near-Earth objects, with the University’s network of space infrastructure and expertise and HENSOLDT’s leading-edge space radar technology will help us secure a larger share of the nation's growing space economy revenues, expected to surpass $7 billion annually by 2023.
As part of this initiative, we will provide $100,000 of financial and in-kind assistance to ‘Team Tasmania’.
This investment will assist HENSOLDT with establishing a Hobart office, employing an initial three to five FTE jobs, and sponsorship of a PhD scholarship for a University of Tasmania student in the field of Space Domain Awareness.
Additionally, we will provide $150,000 towards a $580,000 high-speed optical fibre upgrade for the University of Tasmania’s Greenhill Observatory.
This investment will allow the integration of the University’s facilities into the Australian Space Agency’s Mission Control Framework, placing Tasmania at the forefront of satellite and communications technological development.
We will also invest $80,000 to extend the functionality of the Royal Hobart Hospital’s Hyper/Hypobaric chamber to support cutting-edge aerospace and space human life sciences capabilities.
As the only combined hyperbaric/hypobaric facility in the Southern Hemisphere and one of just a few in the world, this high-tech infrastructure is attracting world-class research to Tasmania through its unique medical research and commercial applications.
This exciting upgrade will unlock extensive new capabilities that will rival that of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory facilities in California.
Provide $300,000 towards a $1.1 million project to transition nine regional school sites from limited bandwidth fixed wireless to high speed optical fibre connections
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will contribute $300,000 towards a $1.1 million project to transition nine regional school sites from limited bandwidth fixed wireless to high speed optical fibre connections.
Schools that will be upgraded include;
- Andrews Creek (Wesley Vale) Primary
- Bagdad Primary
- Dunalley Primary
- Forest Primary
- Glen Huon Primary
- Molesworth Primary
- Tasman District High / OAC
- Yolla District High
- Sheffield High
Bringing high speed optical fibre into these schools will support improved educational outcomes for over 1,850 students, as well as provide opportunities for businesses in these towns to access higher speed internet connections.
Contribute $1 million for telecommunications infrastructure upgrades on King Island
A re-elected Gutwein Liberal Government will invest $1 million towards the $9.8 million King Island telecommunications upgrade, delivered in partnership with the Federal Government, the King Island Council and Telstra. The project will;
- Upgrade connectivity between key sites on the island through the installation of a new 37km optical fibre backbone
- Significantly strengthen the microwave transmission link between Victoria and King Island, increasing capacity by more than six-fold
- Construct new 4G sites at Naracoopa and Yambacoona and upgrade existing mobile network facilities at Gentle Annie, Grassy, Currie and Cape Wickham
The project will be truly transformative for the island, delivering better mobile coverage and faster data speeds to support superior health services, education and emergency management for residents, as well as helping business grow and assisting visitors to the Island with the latest communications technology.
As part of our commitment to building the digital infrastructure that Tasmania needs for our future, we will also undertake a full review of digital infrastructure coverage gaps in the state.
Implement an updated framework for technology procurement, making it easier for ICT businesses to transact with Government for IT products and services
The Tasmanian Liberals are committed to supporting local businesses create jobs and stimulate the economy to deliver growth.
Our updated Buy Local Policy has enhanced opportunities for local suppliers and includes a new test for tenders worth $100,000 or greater, as well as raised the low value procurement threshold from $50,000 to $100,000. This allows more flexibility to directly approach Tasmanian businesses where local capability and capacity exists.
To further enhance opportunities for Tasmanian ICT businesses to transact with Government, from 1 July 2021 we will establish a multi-use list of preferred technology services providers to replace the retired ICT Professional Services Panel.
This will allow for greater flexibility for suppliers to contract to Government, better reflecting contemporary, and emerging technologies, and assist buyers to procure from a wider array of suppliers.
Additionally, we will streamline contract management processes to ensure cost neutrality for business.
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will implement this updated framework for technology procurement, which includes sensible reforms to contract clauses, such as those concerning management of risk and liability.
Our record in Government:
- Built the Tasmanian Government Free Wi-Fi network to provide free internet services at 71 locations around the state.
- Established the Enterprize start-up Hubs in Launceston and Hobart, which are uniting a healthy and burgeoning community of entrepreneurs.
- Funded a $23.1 million upgrade of Department of Health ICT, to modernise Human Resources systems across the state.
- Partnered with mobile telecommunications providers and the Commonwealth to eliminate 53 mobile blackspots around the state, including a major $10.9m upgrade to coverage along the Great Eastern Drive, due for completion by the end of 2021.
- Delivered the $10.6m Flinders Island telecommunications upgrade.
- Invested $567m in the most extensive upgrade to multiagency emergency radio communications in Tasmania’s history, which will replace five separate radio networks with a single public-safety grade radio network to keep Tasmanians safe.
Costings:
This policy is costed at $8.5 million over four years.
*Costed under relevant portfolio documents.