James Bidgood (Dawson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2009. The bill will make significant amendments to the Telecommunications Act 1997, the Trade Practices Act 1974 and the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999. These amendments will require Telstra to functionally separate unless it structurally separates. The bill will reform the telecommunications competition regime to provide regulatory certainty and timely outcomes and minimise opportunities for regulatory gaming and anticompetitive conduct. It will also strengthen enforcement of existing consumer safeguards in the transition to the National Broadband Network, known as the NBN. These changes will boost competition and greatly benefit consumers in Australia by allowing Telstra to voluntarily separate itself or be ‘functionally separated’ by the government. This will mean that consumers in Australia will be better off and it will allow a more level playing field in terms of telecommunications in this country.

Reform in this sector is a good thing for all Australians. Boosting competition in this sector is very important. The reforms are long overdue. The Australian consumer will be in a better position to gain access to fast, affordable and competitive broadband services offered by either Telstra or any other company.

The enhanced National Broadband Network initiative announced on 7 April 2009 outlined the government’s commitment to the rollout of the NBN as a wholesale-only, open-access network. The lack of competition in the telecommunications sector has resulted in Australia lagging behind other developed economies on a range of telecommunications indicators and that is why this bill is so important for our future competitiveness in this sector.

It is the government’s preference for Telstra to voluntarily structurally separate. Such an outcome would be consistent with the wholesale-only, open-access market structure to be delivered through the National Broadband Network. Provisions in the bill intend to correct this unusual and inherently anticompetitive situation by requiring Telstra to choose its future path. The government is committed to reducing red tape where it no longer exists. For example, under this bill smaller carriers will be exempt from paying an annual carrier licence charge, contributing to the universal service and national relay service levies and reporting to ACMA, as the cost of compliance for these carriers is often considerably higher than monetary contribution. Also, redundant reporting requirements under the customer service guarantee, priority assistance and the network reliability framework will be removed as long as benchmarks are being met.

The bill will also replace the current unenforceable arrangements, which require Telstra to only take reasonable steps to fulfil the universal service obligation, with a legislated requirement for Telstra to supply, on request, specified services at specified standards—including connection and repair periods, reliability requirements, payphone placement criteria and performance benchmarks. The bill will provide for more stringent rules on the removal of payphones and new provisions allowing people to apply to ACMA to direct Telstra not to remove a payphone.

I believe Telstra will work constructively with the government and that it will see that competition is a good thing for the industry. Telstra CEO David Thodey has said:

Telstra supports the Government’s NBN vision. We are willing to discuss options around separation.

In conclusion, I would like to say that as I do my community consultations, from Mackay, across the electorate of Dawson, right up to southern Townsville, one of the most common themes that is brought up by people who come up to me is that we have such a slow, fragmented telecommunications network, particularly in rural areas. Broadband is particularly slow. This is of interest to small businesses, which often need huge documents to be transferred from larger cities to rural areas. Slow broadband slows down business operations, and sometimes it can be quite intermittent. Having this legislation on the books is important as it will address many community needs for a much better, much faster broadband network. A competitive market will be able to produce some good outcomes, I believe, for the people of Dawson and particularly for the rural areas within my seat. With this in mind, I say that this is good news and I commend this bill to the House.

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