The Australian Government announced on Wednesday 1 February 2012 funding of up to $4.9m over three years for the Remote Hearing and Vision Services for Children program. This initiative will take advantage of the increased reach and capacity of the National Broadband Network to provide children with hearing and/or vision impairment, and their families, with acccess to the NBN and web-enabled communication technologies to obtain information, guidance, support and skills development from allied health and education professionals where such expertise may otherwise be scarce.