Canberra: Australia’s Prime Minister has promised a funding injection to “finish” the country’s National Broadband Network (NBN) and boost internet speeds.
Anthony Albanese on Monday promised a three billion Australian dollar (1.84 billion US dollar) equity injection in the NBN to improve access to fibre internet connections.
He said the additional funding would deliver new fibre connections to 622,000 premises, with over half in regional rural areas.
When the upgrade is completed by 2030, Albanese said that over 11 million homes and businesses will have access to internet speeds exceeding one Gigabit per second (Gbps) compared to the current average NBN speed of 76.64 Megabits per second (Mbps).
“Families and businesses deserve high-speed Internet at an affordable price,” Albanese said at a press conference in Canberra alongside Ellie Sweeney, Chief Executive of the state-owned NBN Co, and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland.
According to News Corp Australia newspapers, the additional funding would take the total government investment in the NBN since its launch in 2008 to over 35 billion AUD (21.5 billion USD).
Sweeney described the new project as the “final piece of the puzzle” for the network, Xinhua news agency reported.
Modelling commissioned by the government found that the upgrade could deliver a 10.4 billion AUD (6.39 billion USD) cumulative economic uplift over the next decade.
Earlier on Monday, Albanese met with his Cabinet for the first time in 2025.
In opening remarks to the meeting released by his office, Albanese said he is focused on putting forward a positive and optimistic vision for Australia ahead of the general election, which must be held by May.
Last week, Albanese had reiterated social media’s social responsibility following Meta’s announcement to abandon its fact-checking programme.
“Social media has a social responsibility,” Albanese told a press conference held in Mount Isa of the country’s northeastern state of Queensland on Wednesday, when responding to Meta’s decision not to do fact-checking.
Referring to the criticism that social media will make about Australia’s decision and legislation to ban social media for those under 16, Albanese said that is “one that we don’t resile from.”
“We will stand up for Australia’s national interest,” he said. The Prime Minister attributed the rise in mental health issues for young people to social media, adding “I say to social media they have a social responsibility and should fulfil it.”
Under the world-first law, children and teenagers under 16 in Australia will be banned from using social media from the end of next year. Social media companies could be fined up to 50 million Australian dollars (about $31.17 million) for failing to take “reasonable steps” to keep children under 16 off their platforms. There are no penalties for young people or parents who flout the rules.
Facebook and Instagram owner Meta had said that it was scrapping its third-party fact-checking programme because expert fact-checkers had their own biases and too much content ended up being fact-checked.
(IANS)
