Response to consultation on the First Nations digital inclusion roadmap

We live in a rapidly changing world, where the ability to access, afford, and effectively use digital services is not a luxury, it’s essential. As identified in the First Nations Digital Inclusion Advisory Group’s (the Advisory Group) Roap Map discussion paper, digital inclusion is a requirement for full and equal participation in contemporary life to enable people to access essential government, education, social and health services.

However,the Australian Digital Inclusion Index suggests that 1 in 4 Australians are digitally excluded and First Nations people are 7.5 points behind the Australian average with a progressively widening digital gap experienced by First Nations Australians in regional, remote and very remote areas.

The establishment of the Advisory Group was very welcome as a first step in reaching Target 17 in the National Agreement on Closing the Gap for equal digital inclusion by 2026. We were also pleased to see that there has been some government investment to support the recommendations by FINDIAG to aid initial work and data collection to better understand and respond to the digital inclusion needs of First Nations people across Australia.

We thank the Advisory Group for the opportunity to provide feedback on the Road Map and appreciate all the work that has gone into its development. Achieving equal levels of digital inclusion is critical for First Nations Australians to receive equal economic and social opportunities in our increasingly digital world.

Given Good Things Australia’s experience in delivering community-based digital literacy programs through a network of Digital Mentors and our UK colleagues’  experience in establishing a National Device Bank, we will focus our submission on responding to questions for these two areas.