Member States of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have re-elected Australia to the Union's governing Council.
One hundred and eighty countries cast votes in the election which took place in Bucharest, Romania at the ITU's Plenipotentiary Conference, a major quadrennial conference.
The ITU is the United Nations specialised agency that works with governments and industry to make decisions for standardisation of the global communications networks. These standards underpin the technologies Australians use every day.
Australia has been an ITU Council member since 1959, having joined the Union in 1878, the same year the first commercial telephone service was commissioned in Melbourne. Australia is committed to advancing and supporting activities in each of the three sectors of the Union: the Telecommunication Development, Radiocommunication, and Telecommunication Standardization bureaus.
Following Australia's election for a four-year term, we will seek to:
- prioritise efforts to connect the unconnected with accessible, affordable and resilient connectivity
- continue to promote an inclusive, open and accountable ITU
- work collaboratively with all ITU members, to ensure the Union can meet the challenges arising from rapid changes in the global telecommunications landscape, particularly as nations work together to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.
Australia is a top-10 financial contributor to the Union. Our membership on Council means we can still play a part aligning the ITU's work, resources and priorities with the opportunities presented by ongoing digital transformation, benefiting regional partners, close neighbours, and, importantly, all Australians.
