Cables

Question

Mr Kenna: In recent weeks, for example, the Tonga Hawaiki submarine cable branch reached ready-for-service on 24 May. Senator COLLINS: Is that the one that broke in the volcano eruption? Mr Kenna: This is now a redundancy cable for that. This is a second cable. There was a ceremony there, attended by Tonga's royal family, on 26 May. We contributed, through AIFFP, $35.6 million to that, alongside a contribution from New Zealand. This is designed to provide that redundancy and the high-capacity network, to support the essential services and to strengthen resilience so as to reduce the risk of network disruptions such as occurred following the 2022 earthquake. I won't go through them all, but there's the East Micronesia cable; the Tuvalu Vaka cable; the Palau ECHO cable; the announcement of an additional cable into Solomon Islands; and grant funding for a branching unit regional project and technical advisory support for Timor-Leste. I can provide more details on notice if that would be of help. Senator COLLINS: I would love that. You can come round for a cup of tea and tell me all about it.

Answer

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Documents

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