Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Today I rise to speak to the Telecommunications Amendment (SMS Sender ID Register) Bill 2024. This bill seeks to bolster the security of our communication channels by establishing an SMS sender ID register. The primary goal of this register is to combat impersonation and the subsequent fraud that arises from that impersonation. Bad actors often spoof industry and government brand names in messages, leading to financial losses for businesses and for individuals—sometimes at life-altering levels.

I'm aware of HSBC customers, including a number in my electorate, who have been targeted by sophisticated bank impersonation scams since at least April 2023. I've heard from a significant number of constituents whose lives have been irrevocably altered by the tragic financial losses they have suffered as a result of this disgraceful situation. One received a phone call from a scammer who claimed to work for the HSBC fraud team. The scammer sent messages which appeared to be from HSBC because they appeared in the same text thread as previous messages that constituent had received from their bank. Who wouldn't fall for this scam? Ultimately that scam took control of the account, and the scammer stole almost $50,000 from my constituent. I've spoken of this issue before in the House, and it bears repeating: scammers prey on people who are trying to do the right thing. People can lose their life savings through no fault of their own. The cost of fraudulent SMS activity in Australia in 2023 was about $27 million. This bill should go some way to curbing those losses.

Under the bill, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, or ACMA, or a nominated third party will create and maintain the register. It will cover the short message service, or SMS or texts, and the multimedia message service, or MMS. The bill also anticipates the inclusion of future message services. It needs to be established as soon as is practical.

This register will serve as a repository for legitimate sender identifications—that is, it will enable legitimate services to be identified thus. The bill defines 'sender identification' to prevent misuse. ACMA will have the power to accept or reject registrations and to deregister users. I'm really pleased to see the register has been funded by the government at $10.9 million over four years, with an ongoing budget of $2.2 million. This is a very small investment in the safety of our citizens, many of whom have lost huge amounts of money.

The next critical step in stopping scammers will be in determining whether or not SMS sender identification is voluntary or mandatory. There are pros and cons to both, but I know that 89 per cent of respondents who were involved in consultation around this bill were in favour of a mandatory register, as am I. Under that model ACMA will identify legitimate senders and will enforce compliance. In a voluntary scheme, senders could choose to register but it would be for the telecommunication companies—the telcos—to verify user legitimacy. It's clear that a voluntary scheme could place more risk and more cost on telecommunications companies.

ACMA plans to undertake a cost analysis for both models. The implementation and running costs may fall entirely on the Commonwealth unless ACMA designates telcos as third-party agents. ACMA could perhaps consider a hybrid model in which industry and the Commonwealth share the operating and developmental costs of the register; I know there was a precedent for this sort of model in the late 1990s.

Industry taking the lead in determining the legitimate senders within our telco system could benefit the public in many ways. It could reduce the burden on public funds of the sorts of disgraceful losses we've seen as a result of the activities of these terrible scammers. It could enable more timely intervention at the point of sale and it could well lighten ACMA's regulatory burden by freeing up resources.

The government's efforts to tackle scammers are encouraging, but we still need to do more to strengthen our systems and to resist the growing levels of organised crime behind scams. I reiterate my call for a mandatory SMS sender identification register, and I look forward to the completion of the ACMA analysis of the cost of that model. I look forward to clarification of the government's plans at the time of the third reading of this bill.

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