Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

One afternoon I found myself listening to Ben Fordham's podcast on 2GB and I heard the story of Paul Trefry. Paul was contacted via a text message by ANZ and advised that his business account had been compromised and that he just had two options to solve this: cancel his credit card or deposit his money into a new account. Paul transferred over $130,000 to a bank account owned by scammers. They had spoofed ANZ's SMS service and contacted customers hoping to trick them out of their hard earned money. Paul's story is just one of many from victims of scammers.

Since I've been raising this issue in my capacity on the House Economics Committee, I've heard countless heartbreaking stories of people falling victim to scammers and I've learned that anyone can fall victim to these heinous criminals. When the Albanese government came to office, Australians were losing over $3 billion a year to scammers. Online, text message, phone and in-person scams were the main ways that Aussies lost money. Disturbingly, the amount lost to scams had doubled each and every year from 2019 to 2022.

We came to government and we took action. As a government, we have established the National Anti-Scam Centre, we've rolled out Australia's first SMS Sender ID registry to stop the spoofing which Paul was subjected to and we've bolstered the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's capacity to shut down fraudulent websites. The government have made significant inroads, but of course we know there's more to do. We came to government with an ambitious, aggressive antiscam agenda, and the results prove that we are delivering on our commitment to combat scammers. In last year's budget, $86½ million was invested into some of the programs mentioned earlier.

I've had the opportunity to see how fostering collaboration across industries, through the establishment of the National Anti-Scam Centre, is vital in combating scams. The necessity for a cohesive approach was particularly highlighted during our discussions in open public hearings with the big four banks, where it was apparent that each bank had its own approach to addressing scams. However, the data and experts showed consistently that these disparate strategies were insufficient. It has become clear that industry players must align with regulatory bodies such as the ACCC and ASIC to form a unified front against scammers. The collaborative effort is crucial for enhancing the effectiveness of current antiscam measures in safeguarding the interests of consumers.

Since July last year the losses we've seen from scams have started to come down. The National Anti-Scam Centre's recent quarterly report highlighted a 43 per cent reduction in scam losses in the last quarter of 2023 compared to the same period of previous years, signalling a promising trend reversal. However, recognising the evolving and cyclical nature of scams, the government has committed to introducing stringent new codes outlining the responsibilities of the private sector to deal with scam activities. Banks, telecommunications providers and digital messaging and social media platforms will be required to implement measures to detect, disrupt and prevent scams, underlining a more aggressive stance against these fraudulent activities. Where these essential service providers fall foul of these codes they will be forced to pay, as they should.

While the banks and telcos are seemingly working with the government on this code, it's clear from advice I've received and from discussions I've had that digital and social media platforms are not doing enough. They often attract plenty of attention by scammers through their messenger services and they simply must step up to the challenge we all face. Digital messaging and social media services simply cannot wipe their hands of this responsibility. On telecommunications: the government has pioneered the first SMS ID register. That has been successful and it's an innovative measure to curtail scammers' abilities to masquerade as ANZ, Linkt or myGov by falsifying sender IDs.

We're taking a number of serious measures to combat scams. For too long this was put in the too-hard basket and it's clear that the market has failed to step in where it needs to. Under the leadership of the Assistant Treasurer, we'll put up this code and get some action.

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