With the NBN currently being rolled out, the Government is working to ensure that all Australians have access to the benefits high-speed broadband can bring. The National Digital Economy Strategy’s eight goals outline the Government’s long-term vision to be a world-leading digital economy by 2020. Digital technologies can provide easier access to education, health and government services, increase opportunities for business, and allow people in rural areas to access the same services as those in cities. In order to kickstart our progress towards meeting the Strategy’s digital economy goals the government is funding more than 20 initiatives. These include:

• Digital Communities. To help more Australian households get online and to narrow the gap between Australian households, the Digital Communities initiative will provide $23.8 million over three years. A focus of the initiative will be to establish a ‘Digital Hub’ in each of the 40 communities which will first benefit from the NBN. Through these ‘Digital Hubs’, local residents will be able to experience the NBN and receive training to develop the digital skills necessary to participate safely and securely and have trust and confidence in the digital economy.
• Internet Basics website. To help more Australians and households gain the required digital skills to confidently participate online, the Australian Government has developed the Internet Basics website available online at Internetbasics.gov.au or through the government’s Digital Hubs program.
• Broadband for Seniors. To ensure that older Australians have the skills and confidence to participate in an NBN-empowered digital economy, the Australian Government will continue its Broadband for Seniors program, and has provided $10.4 million over four years from July 2011.
• Digital Enterprise. To enable more Australian businesses and not-for-profit organisations to leverage the benefits of broadband-empowered online engagement, a Digital Enterprise initiative will provide $12.4 million over three years to provide advice and support services to small and medium enterprises and not-for-profit organisations, including local cultural institutions, in communities which will first benefit from the NBN. This initiative will assist these organisations to achieve cost savings, productivity enhancements and improved marketing through greater online engagement.
• Online Retail. To ensure that Australia’s retail industry is well placed to maximise the benefits of the digital economy, the government hosted an Online Retail Forum to highlight the importance of a vibrant Australian online retail sector, promote industry dialogue and facilitate networking. The Australian Government has also asked the Productivity Commission to conduct an inquiry into the economic structure and performance of the Australian retail industry and consider the drivers of structural change in the retail industry, including globalisation and increasing household and business access to the digital economy.
• Smart Grid, Smart City. To investigate the synergies of the NBN and other utilities, in 2009 the Australian Government provided $100 million to the implementation of the Smart Grid, Smart City project, a collaborative initiative together with the energy sector that will roll out Australia’s first commercial scale smart grid. In addition, to lessen congestion on roads and reduce carbon emissions, the Australian Government will collaborate with industry to promote greater adoption of teleworking.
• Sustainable Australia-managed motorways. To reduce congestion and improve traffic demand management and the overall efficiency of the transport network in major cities, the Australian Government has committed to fund smart infrastructure technologies. As part of the Sustainable Australia-managed motorways initiative, the government has provided $61.4 million over three years to fund smart infrastructure technologies to reduce congestion and improve traffic demand management and the overall efficiency of the transport network in major cities.
• Telehealth Trials. To support Australia’s health system to effectively integrate digital technologies and broadband-delivered services to drive efficiency, improve patient outcomes and temper the rate of growth in hospital and other admissions, the Australian Government will conduct two Telehealth trials. One trial will occur in Armidale and Kiama and focus on the delivery of high-quality NBN-enabled telehealth services to older Australians living at home with serious medical conditions. The other trial will be conducted in Townsville and will deliver high-quality monitoring and video-conferencing services to people suffering type 2 diabetes.
• Medicare Benefits Schedule. To ensure that Australia’s health system supports greater adoption of telehealth, the Australian Government is expanding the Medicare Benefits Schedule to include items for telehealth services, starting from 1 July 2011.
• NBN-enabled Education and Skills Services.To promote innovative education uses of the NBN, the Australian Government will establish an NBN-enabledEducation and Skills Services program over four years that will fund, source, develop and implement projects to trial improved online and interactive education and skills using the NBN.
• NBN-enabled tele-education project. To help Australia’s education system secure the benefits from a high-speed broadband classroom environment and at-home learning, the Australian Government will provide funding for an NBN-enabled tele-education project utilising state-of-the-art virtual interactive training rooms, laboratories and community learning capability through a partnership between the NSW TAFE New England Institute and University of New England. This project will demonstrate the potential for the development and delivery of new models of further education services and resources to students and learners Australia-wide.
• Telework Forum. To encourage greater adoption of teleworking across all sectors of the economy using the NBN, the Australian Government will host a Telework Forum that will bring together senior executives from industry and the Australian Public Service to explore the business case for increased teleworking and successful examples from industry.
• Tell Us Once. To contribute to government services being more customer-centric, efficient and cost-effective, the Australian Government will provide $2.3 million in 2011-12 to investigate and test some preliminary developments to improve people’s ease of use and access to government services under a “Tell Us Once” initiative (the Improved Access to Australian Government Service initiative).  This funding will be used for a scoping study, technical pilot and business case. Improvements to be explored include allowing individuals to communicate updated details to multiple agencies simultaneously; pre-fill forms using information previously submitted to a government agency; and view all government communications in one place.
• Service Delivery Reform. To ensure government service delivery is modern and flexible, the Australian Government has committed to Service Delivery Reform initiatives within the Human Services portfolio that will transform the way people receive services and interact with government.   Over time, this work may leverage the NBN through the use of real-time interactive customer service tools, including, for example, using the voice-over the internet protocol and high-definition video conferencing.
• data.gov.au. To promote the development of innovative online applications and services by businesses and the community, the Australian Government has developed data.gov.au as a data catalogue of government information. The site provides data from the federal and state and territory governments in useful formats and under open licenses with the intention of encouraging public access to and reuse of government data.
• Regional Australia. To ensure that the benefits of the digital economy are enjoyed equally by those Australians living in metropolitan and regional areas, elements of the Digital Communities and Digital Enterprise initiatives will help address these gaps. Similarly, the Tele-health trials and NBN-enabled tele-education trial projects will occur in regional areas and allow expertise to be developed locally.
• NBN Regional Legal Assistance Program. To demonstrate the ability of the NBN to improve service delivery in regional Australia, the NBN Regional Legal Assistance Program will provide legal support and attract and retain staff in selected regional areas.
•  Australian Broadcasting Corporation/Education Services Australia Education Portal. To help students, families and teachers access high quality educational content in the home and classroom, this project will create a public, online learning portal. The ABC will supply a pool of current and historical video and audio clips, articles, and images. As the NBN rolls out, the portal will include more interactive features, such as user-generated contributions from students and teachers.
• Remote Hearing and Vision Services for Children. To help children with hearing and/or vision impairment in outer regional and remote Australia, this program will improve access to health and education services online.
• Department of Human Services – Leveraging the NBN to Enhance Service Delivery. To help more Australians access support services provided by Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support, the Australian Government has committed funding over four years to pilot videoconferencing in service delivery. This will be particularly helpful to Australians in regional, rural and remote areas, people living with disability and those in need of emergency assistance.
• Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) – Putting Museums Online. To develop online access to museums, this initiative will use an NBN-enabled robot and an immersive web interface to allow people to remotely tour a museum.