Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

Scams have been a feature in many of our lives for decades, but in today's digital age they have taken on a new, invasive form that is leading to devastating outcomes for too many people. Like nearly every member in this place, I have heard some terrible stories from constituents in recent years about the scam losses that they or a loved one have experienced.

Top of my mind is an experience of a local resident, Doris. Doris has shared her story with the media to make other people aware of the very creative ways that scammers try to reach out to people, and she is really hoping that sharing her story will stop others from falling victim to similar scams. Doris was trying to set herself up for retirement by investing her savings, $260,000. She was looking online at banks to invest with, looking for a good investment rate, and she came across what looked like a very legitimate Singapore based bank offering what looked like a very good return on that investment. Doris spoke to someone who said they were from the bank. She got sent some very legitimate-looking documents. I've seen those documents myself. I looked at them, and they looked like the kinds of documents that a bank would send you if you were looking to set up an account and invest with them.

Doris thought: 'Great! This is what I'm going to go ahead with. This is a good rate of return. This will secure my retirement.' She went along to her local Commonwealth Bank branch, where her money was, to send the money to this allegedly Singapore based bank. Doris completed an international money transfer at the bank and thought that all seemed well. Six weeks later, Doris went to try to withdraw some of her funds, and she found that there was nothing there. She in fact had been scammed. Her life savings were gone. And, again, Doris is towards the end of her working life, and this has a devastating impact for her and her future. As she said, 'They made it sound so perfect, and I lost the lot.'

Doris is a smart woman, and she has worked hard. Like many people, she's had her share of challenges, but she did what she thought was her due diligence on this investment. She was caught out by a sophisticated scam designed to lull her and others into a false sense of security. Doris took her case to the ombudsman because she was concerned about whether the Commonwealth Bank should have played a bigger role in checking where that money was going. The ombudsman found the bank was deemed to have done all it was required to do in this situation. It is absolutely fair enough that Doris wishes that the Commonwealth Bank could have and would have done more to stop this transaction and that, when she got to that point of transferring the money, there were more warnings to her about the risks before she approved that transfer.

Doris did nothing wrong. She is an intelligent woman, and she has shared her story to try to stop others from being in the same position. But it is absolutely the case that banks, telcos and social media companies must all do more. That's why I'm really pleased to be speaking on the Scams Prevention Framework Bill 2024 today and about the work that this government is doing to focus on this insidious problem and to make sure that people like Doris are not at the same level of risk of being scammed in the future.

Of course, Doris's story is not a unique one. In 2023, Australians lost a total of $2.7 billion as a result of scams. That shows the scale of the challenge we face. As I said, banks, telcos and social media companies in particular have a responsibility to do more to stop people from being scammed. People like Doris should not be left without their life savings, particularly if there could have been just a bit more done to advise her of risks, to make sure that the transaction she was taking was legitimate before it was too late. Absolutely, social media companies have a responsibility to stop the absolute flood of ads and scammers that fill our news feeds, local community group pages where people are just trying to talk about what's happening in their neighbourhood, and the friend requests that aren't actually friends or, in most cases, real people. They are absolutely not doing enough, and this isn't a new problem. It has been like this for years. It had been getting worse until this government took the focus that we have now. Scams have been allowed to flourish for too long in this country.

Our government has been and is taking action on an issue that the Liberals and the Nationals put in the too-hard basket for far too long. We have delivered more than $180 million to combat scams and online fraud, and it is making a difference. Scam losses have dropped by 40 per cent. Losses have almost cut in half since we stood up the National Anti-Scam Centre. There is more work to be done, and that's why this bill is going to be so important. The Scams Prevention Framework is the next vital step in our work to stamp out scams. Scamwatch data tells us bank transfer was the most reported payment method used by scammers, with more than $200 million in reported losses in 2023. It was phone calls and social media contact that were the methods associated with the highest value of the losses: $116 million and $93.5 million, respectively, in 2023. With the work we're doing, we will be holding banks, telcos and social media to account to ensure that they are doing their bit to keep people's savings safe from criminals. To get the change that we need, we do need to have an all-in effort. It will obviously take government and the work we are doing here, but it will also take all of these companies and our community.

Certainly, as a government, that's also a message we have been trying to empower people with. I want to echo what others have said in this chamber: if you have been scammed, it is absolutely not your fault. It's not that you have missed something. I think people sometimes feel ashamed and like they are at fault. It is not your fault. It is the fault of these very sophisticated criminals who are targeting you.

It has been great to host in my electorate the Assistant Treasurer and the Minister for Financial Services, who has been leading a lot of this work. He came to Jagajaga last year and spoke to a packed audience and the Bundoora Community Hall for a scams forum. That was a really useful session talking about the types of scams people face, the avenues people can take to protect themselves from scammers and why our government's work to stop scams is so important. At this moment, I would particularly like to thank the Assistant Treasurer for his dedication and work over the past 2½ years as a minister driving this work to stop Australians being scammed, to protect Australians, and also for travelling the country to electorates like mine to make sure that Australians know what protections are out there for them when it comes to scams.

As Assistant Minister for Ageing, I am particularly aware that older Australians often feel that they are particularly vulnerable to scams as people who haven't grown up being digital natives. They feel as though (a) they're probably more likely to be targeted and (b) they're less likely to understand what's going on. Again, I do want to say to those older Australians: if you are scammed, it is absolutely not your fault and there are avenues to support you. That's the work we are doing here.

We are also doing work to make sure that older Australians can feel more confident online. In particular, the Be Connected program, which is run in conjunction with the eSafety Commissioner, is a wonderful program that provides all Australians but, in particular, older Australians with workshops and modules to learn how to get online with confidence and with safety. It's often run in community centres, in libraries or through senior citizens groups. So, if you are an older Australian and you are worried about being scammed and want to feel more confident online, I would absolutely recommend looking up the Be Connected program, finding out about where it's running near you and taking some of the modules under that.

The Minister for Small Business has reminded me that we are also assisting small business to make sure they're set up to be able to deal with the impact of scams. The IDCARE program specifically supports small businesses that have had a cyberattack or a scam. They are the people for small businesses to contact when they've been attacked or fallen victim to scams.

Again, these scams are insidious. They're happening across our economy. They're happening to people across the country. So, as the government, we are really aware that we need to take an all-in approach, putting the scammers on notice that we are onto them. We are looking at banks, telecommunication providers and digital platforms. Under this framework, we are asking them and requiring them to do more than they have done before. We will be making sure that the framework is kept up to date. We'll be looking at other sectors that may be coming under it in the future, such as superannuation, cryptocurrency, online marketplaces and other payment providers.

We will make sure that there are penalties of up to $50 million that may apply if people breach the framework. Obviously, that's intended to incentivise compliance and provide adequate penalties to deter regulated entities who may, in fact, foresee higher possible gains from breaching the framework. We want to make sure that this works. Regulators will also have other compliance tools available: infringement notices, enforceable undertakings, injunctions, public warnings and remedial actions. These are all to ensure the framework is administered as intended to protect consumers.

Consumers will have access to free and transparent dispute resolution processes. Again, this is going to make a big difference in the cases such as the one I outlined. There will be somewhere for a consumer to go to actually resolve their dispute when they feel like an entity has not met its obligations. I think that will be a really important part of this puzzle as well. People will be able to take action in court if they have suffered loss or damage because a regulated entity has not met its obligations under the framework.

I want people in my community to have increased confidence that this is something our government is bringing a huge amount of attention to. With this bill, we are saying that more must be done to combat scams, to keep Australians safe and to make sure that others do not end up in the position of Doris in my community and that others do not fall victim to scams that mean they lose their life savings. This is really important work, and it is, of course, the work that a Labor government does to make sure that our communities are safe and fair for all.

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