Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the member for New England for his contribution to the debate today. I share with him many very similar views, particularly about how our Indigenous communities pre European settlement managed the bush. I think there are a lot of lessons that we can pick up from those Aboriginal communities. I also share his views about the very important role that the ABC played in trying to alert the community to events in Victoria three weekends ago.

It is with a mixture of feelings that I speak to the Telecommunications Amendment (Integrated Public Number Database) Bill 2009 today. Firstly, I am proud to be a part of a government that is able to react with such speed and commitment in times of crisis. But, of course, it is after an event of catastrophic proportions, an event that has shocked our entire nation. This bill is about saving lives, and it is of utmost importance to rural and regional communities around Australia. It is also of utmost importance to my own community, the federal seat of Corangamite. In fact, I would go as far as to say that this bill will be more important in my own seat than in just about any other region in Australia, but I will get to that in some detail in a moment.

First, here is some of the detail of this bill. The integrated public number database, the IPND, is a centralised database of all telephone numbers in Australia, including unlisted numbers. This bill will amend the act to allow the IPND information to be disclosed for use in issuing state and territory government initiated telephone based emergency warnings. Given the sensitive nature of information contained in the IPND, such as telephone numbers, names and addresses, access to this information must be and will be strictly limited and protected under the Telecommunications Act. This bill is about dealing with emergency situations. The legislation is intended to assist in the implementation of telephone based emergency warning systems by state and territory governments. The bill is drafted so that it allows for states and territories to develop and operate jointly data management and emergency warning systems. The bill also includes a number of very important privacy safeguards.

This bill also provides the Attorney-General with powers to make legislative instruments to do a couple of things: firstly, in consultation with the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, it provides powers to specify to whom the IPND information can be disclosed; secondly, the Attorney may also determine the circumstances in which the IPND information could be used—in practice this is likely to be in an emergency, as defined by the relevant state and territory legislation for telephone based emergency warning systems. Significantly, this bill imposes penalties of up to two years imprisonment for the misuse of the IPND information database.

I want to say a few things about the relevance of this bill to my seat and to my community. Within Corangamite we have one of the highest levels of fire threat anywhere within Victoria. The Otways region has a high-level threat because of both the numbers of people at risk and the public and private assets that are at risk. It is also important due to the assets of great significance to our regional economy. Within my seat we have the Otways Ranges and the Great Ocean Road. Along the Great Ocean Road we have many coastal towns: Port Campbell, Apollo Bay, Skenes Creek, Kennett River, Wye River, Fairhaven, Moggs Creek, Aireys Inlet, Anglesea and Jan Juc—just to name a few of the coastal communities that are extremely vulnerable to fire attack. There are also small hinterland towns, including Forrest, Beech Forest and Deans Marsh. There are tens of thousands of people who are vulnerable to fire attack living within these towns. After briefings late yesterday between the education department bosses in Victoria, the Parks Victoria heads and CFA leaders, a host of visitor areas and tourist hotspots throughout the Otways National Park and along the Great Ocean Road will be declared no-go zones tomorrow because of the unprecedented extreme fire weather conditions expected. There is no other region in Victoria where so many people are centralised in such high-risk areas. This bill potentially will give them early warning of fire and, hopefully, a greater chance of getting out alive.

In addition to my constituents, I have many friends who also live in these communities. The advent of the recent, terrible fires has given me cause to think hard about what is the best way to warn people. I think this is one of the best ways possible. Given the speed at which fires can travel and their increasing ferocity unless we have more proactive individualised warning systems people in these communities will have little chance. Relying upon passive measures for early warning—such as occasionally checking a website, turning on a radio or watching the TV—is not very safe at all, especially given, as I say, the speed and ferocity that fires can travel at. I believe the ability to send a message straight to people’s mobiles or home phones is very important. It is also a much more proactive, faster and more efficient way of sending a warning, and that is exactly what we need in an emergency situation. Three weeks ago, I was watching the news unfold on the Sunday morning and I recall one family—who just got out with their lives—who spent that Saturday evening watching a DVD, not knowing the disaster that was unfolding around them. Very clearly, the matters in this bill will give people in such circumstances a much greater opportunity to escape with their lives.

I also want to make some broader comments about the Otway Ranges and the issue of telecommunications and fire vulnerability. I have been concerned about telecommunications in the Otways, particularly in relation to fire risks. One of the legacies, I believe, of the previous coalition government in telecommunications in Corangamite is very poor coverage in many parts of the Otways. It is a sad fact that the overwhelming effort, over the period of the previous government, in telecommunications was about selling off telecommunications to the private sector. The coalition pursued an ideological agenda in telecommunications—as they did in a number of other areas—rather than provide services and apply equity principles to all Australians. We have seen very recently how this can, in fact, put lives in danger. I am not one to get too partisan. I believe that this is not the time to do so, and I will not go any further.

I am very pleased to see that the opposition is supporting these provisions, but I do have to say there have been quite clear consequences for people in my seat due to the lack of commitment by the coalition to telecommunications in the bush. The fact is that it was only after the Telstra privatisation legislation polled so badly and looked in jeopardy that the coalition offered a sop to the bush and regional and rural Australians. The lack of action over so many years whilst the coalition was in government has had a clear impact on telecommunications in this nation. It is a sad fact that some of the highest risk areas in the Otways actually have the worst telecommunications services in Victoria. I believe that that is the coalition’s legacy within my seat. It is true that mountainous areas are, by nature, difficult to cover by telecommunications. But it is equally true that if you are concentrating on improving services rather than pursuing an ideological agenda then you are more likely to get the things done that matter to people. Telecommunications coverage in the Otways should be better than it is today and I believe that this government will improve them. This is something I have been speaking to the minister about, and it now needs to be addressed to enable implementation of this database.

I wholeheartedly support this bill. We cannot pass it soon enough as far as I am concerned. It is indeed one of the most important things we can do to provide early warning against bushfires and floods in the future. There are clear advantages in using data sourced from the IPND for telephone based emergency warnings. The IPND is the most comprehensive and accurate Australian public number database available and information is updated on a continual basis.

Individual states and territories will also retain autonomy to decide when and how best to warn their citizens of emergencies and impending disasters and which telephone based warning system is most appropriate for their jurisdiction. The bill is drafted so that it allows states and territories the flexibility to develop and operate data management and emergency warning systems either individually or jointly. Emergency management organisations have proposed a telephone based warning capacity to complement existing warning systems, such as radio, public address systems or television alerts. The experts are recommending this, there seems to be universal support for this measure, and I certainly recommend it to the House.

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