Digital connectivity plan

The State Government will work with regional leaders to develop plans to establish greater digital connectivity across the Wimmera and southern Mallee.

Regional Development Minister Jaala Pulford said while addressing a Rural Councils Victoria meeting in Melbourne that work to create digital plans for nine Victorian development regions was underway.

The government is investing more than $1-million towards the digital plans in an effort to gather comprehensive and up-to-date information on each region’s digital infrastructure and services.

It is working with a Wimmera Southern Mallee Regional Partnership group to develop a digital plan tailored to address specific needs and priorities of the region.

The approach includes investigative fieldwork and mapping of services including mobile telephone coverage, improved fixed broadband for businesses and digital hubs.

The State Government included $45-million in a Connecting Regional Communities Program as part of its 2017-18 budget.

This was based on all nine regional partnership groups calling for improvements to digital infrastructure.

The government expects the first digital plans to be finalised by the middle of this year.

Wimmera Southern Mallee Regional Partnership chairman David Jochinke said the partnership was focussed on establishing ‘decent’ regional coverage to support productivity and innovation in agricultural, business and research sectors.

“In addition, we recognise that by lifting the region’s digital uptake and infrastructure, we hope to address some of the persistent barriers of time, distance and isolation, that impacts on our region’s ability to access quality services, especially in education and health sectors,” he said.