Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make my contribution on the Telecommunications Amendment (SMS Sender ID Register) Bill 2024. In the past few years we have seen a significant increase in scams as well as an increased focus on how to better combat them. They have touched the lives of every Australian. Everyone knows someone who's been scammed, or they have been scammed themselves. Scams come in all shapes and forms. It could be by email, SMS, a phone call, social media or even a knock on the door.

At least once a day, Australians are confronted by scams in some form, and the most common types are those through SMS and phone calls. Australians often get a call from an unknown number, or a misspelt text message claiming to be from a major company. This presents a significant issue, as phone calls and text messages are often the only way to contact companies and we are often waiting for messages and phone calls from them. While some are more obvious than others, it can be really difficult to discern what is real and what is fake.

Only recently the Australian Communications and Media Authority, ACMA, reported a rise in SMS scams impersonating companies like Coles, Telstra, Optus and Woolies, relating to loyalty and reward points. Of course they are by no means unique or unfamiliar to Australians. In 2024 over 95,000 scams were reported to the National Anti-Scam Centre's Scamwatch, and, since new rules were implemented in 2022 by ACMA, more than 533 million scam texts between July 2022 and March 2024 were blocked, helping to stop those scams before they reached Australians.

The introduction of this bill marks the next step in the Albanese government's ongoing effort to protect Australians from scams. It builds on the government's commitment to a further $67.5 million over four years to combat scams. This will support the introduction of mandatory industry codes to combat scams; the ACMA work in enforcing compliance with the telco industry's antiscams code; and a campaign by the National Anti-Scam Centre, which was established on 1 July 2023, on how Australians can identify and protect themselves from scams. This funding is in addition to the $86.5 million over four years provided in the May 2023 budget, which included funding to establish the National Anti-Scam Centre. Already our efforts have helped combat scams, with recent data indicating that from 2022 to 2023 scam losses declined by 13.1 per cent.

This bill, once passed, will require ACMA to establish and maintain an SMS sender register, delivering on our April 2023 announcement to establish the register. The bill was informed by two tranches of stakeholder and public consultation by ACMA and the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts, which gathered feedback from telecommunications providers, government agencies, merchants, consumer organisations and the public. The register, once established, will play a crucial role in fighting SMS scams by helping Australians better identify and differentiate between legitimate businesses and scams. Scams that will be targeted by this register are those text messages that are sent using a sender ID in a message header which looks similar to well-known companies that Australians may interact with daily. There are an estimated 300,000 legitimate sender IDs in use in Australia which could potentially be registered, and this legislation lays the groundwork necessary for that registration.

Explicitly embedded in this bill are essential elements for applications, the refusal of applications and the removal of entities from the register. ACMA will be tasked with setting up further requirements for access to the register and for its administration and operation before the register commences. ACMA will establish an industry code for telecommunications providers who manage SMS traffic, requiring telcos who manage that traffic to check if an SMS using a sender ID is on the register. If it's not, the telco will be required to block or tag the SMS as potentially fraudulent.

To ensure that ACMA have the appropriate time to develop further requirements for access to the register, establish the industry code and procure the necessary ICT platforms to establish the register, the bill allows for a deferred commencement date. The deferred commencement date will accommodate the decision that will be made later this year on whether the register will be voluntary or mandatory. To allow for the time needed by ACMA to finalise these preparations, the bill provides that ACMA must establish the register 'as soon as practicable', allowing the necessary flexibility to prepare for the commencement of the register. It is expected that it will be operational by late 2025 and, once fully operational, will make Australia a harder target for scam activity.

Of course, the Albanese government does not think the register will be a silver bullet against SMS scams. We know that scammers will continue to employ new methods, which is why provisions in this bill will allow the government to respond quickly in the face of these growing threats. The bill will allow the minister to determine future communications services, other than SMS and MMS, which may use sender identifications; something other than letters, numbers and symbols which may be included in sender identification; and relevant information additional to accepted sender identification that should be kept on the register.

Since 2022, the Albanese government has taken a multipronged approach to combating scams. As a result we have seen a reduction in the number of Australians losing money to scams. But the number is still far too high, and our government will continue to fight the scammers. This bill is the next step in our plan to help protect Australians. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.

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