It is vital to define acceptable minimum infrastructure standards and apply them to Small Towns, Rural Communities and Remote Areas. They should provide the basis for service provision in these areas, where some communities face significant infrastructure deficits in essential services such as transport, telecommunications and water.
Transport: Governments must set time-based access standards for passenger transport to meet the needs of people living in Rural Communities and Remote Areas.
Where road, rail and aviation operations meet these standards, people will be able to access essential services that are not available online, and return home, within a single day or comparable timeframe.
Telecommunications: There have already been improvements to the coverage, speed, and reliability of mobile and fixed telecommunications in regional and remote Australia.
With the increasing importance of telecommunications and the vast expanses of land involved, it is vital to find a sustainable investment model that supports new coverage for these areas.
Water: State and territory municipal services departments must genuinely commit to delivering fit-for-purpose, fit-for-place and fit-for-people water services to Australians living in remote and isolated communities. This must be delivered through approaches that recognise and respond to the unigue conditions in these parts of the country.