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ADM+S and Telstra’s 2022-2025 Reconciliation Action Plan
Author Natalie Campbell
Date 29 July 2022
On 28 July Telstra launched its Reconciliation Action Plan for 2022-2025, committing significant investments in remote infrastructure and digital inclusion programs, including the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society’s (ADM+S) Mapping the Digital Gap project which aims to improve digital inclusion outcomes and access to services in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
The Reconciliation Action Plan endeavours to create an inclusive Australia where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are connected digitally and empowered to thrive in those contextual environments. Telstra’s partnership with ADM+S is one step toward making this happen.
Led by Dr Daniel Featherstone, ADM+S researchers partnered with 12 remote first nations communities across South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia, New South Wales and the Northern Territory.
Working with community co-researchers, the Mapping the Digital Gap project will be interviewing hundreds of residents, and organisations, to collect data on the accessibility and use of communications and media services in these areas.
The project data will be used to inform government and industry policy decisions to identify ways of improving access and the useability of digital technology for these communities. It will also provide data about the heightened impacts of Covid-19 on digital inclusion in these communities, which evidently are more pronounced in remote areas where accessibility is already lacking.
This project will also contribute to Telstra’s involvement in Target 17 of the Australian Government Closing the Gap strategy which states that by 2026, Australia’s First Peoples will have equal levels of digital inclusion.
Read the full report Telstra’s 2022-2025 Reconciliation Action Plan
