Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Sustainable Development and Cities) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I join with and support the committee chair in commending to the chamber the report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications, Phoning home: inquiry into international mobile roaming. One of the things that you are faced with after overseas travel is that, even if you are not knocked over by jet lag and different time zones, you will be completely bowled over by your phone bill. It is absolutely frightening what you can face after travelling internationally and using global roaming functions. The committee recognised that this is a very serious concern but realised that it is not a concern that affects everybody. One of the things that kept coming through from evidence to the inquiry was that for the major players—the telcos and the like—it is not a really big share of their revenue or at the top of the list of things to do, although there was universal agreement that this is an ugly area of telecommunications and it is frightfully expensive. It seems very complicated to address. The factors involved, which have been very eloquently outlined in the report, make this a complex challenge to address.

The committee’s recommendations are pragmatic and realistic. They start with a very simple call to consumers: be very, very alert to avoid being very alarmed when you come home; be aware of what you are faced with, what the charging structures look like and what the options are; and be very thoughtful in your phone use. We learnt that there are so many influences on that final bill that cannot be directly regulated or addressed by our institutions and framework in Australia—and you end up paying a very big bill. The committee acknowledges, the report acknowledges and I acknowledge that not all of the factors that go to global roaming charges are within the control of the telecommunications companies. What is clear, though, is that it is their logo that is on the bill. We look to the telecommunications sector to be a positive, constructive and proactive influence in trying to address these concerns.

The committee’s recommendations also embraced what is a legitimate role for government. These are away-game issues. These are influences way off the shores of Australia, but there is a role for government in trying to get in place a framework that makes sure that the charging at a wholesale level—which is a charge generated offshore—is within some realistic parameters, and that should be part of our diplomacy and advocacy when it comes to bilateral and multilateral activity.

This is a good, pragmatic report, and it provides some very constructive recommendations. The report calls on the communications industry, through the Communications Alliance, to be very helpful and active in the information it supplies to its consumers. It says that government can do its bit through Smartraveller and other alerts like that, where people can find out about their visas and inoculations. It is also saying: be thoughtful about what you are doing with your phone bill; and it also says that the ATUG, the Australian Telecommunications User Group, campaign is something that we should embrace.

I want to praise the committee staff who were involved: Kevin Bodel, our inquiry secretary; Jerome Brown and all the other temporary secretaries that we had on the way through; Geoff Wells, the research officer; and Dorota, Emma and Claire from the committee secretariat. I thank them for their work.

Above all, I urge consumers to realise that they are in the driver’s seat. All the tools we wish they had available are not always available. Be very, very alert about global roaming; otherwise, you will come home and be very, very alarmed and substantially out of pocket. I commend the report to the House.

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