Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Hopefully, Member for Nicholls, there is a new government to continue to do more and more for communications in our community.

We are supporting this bill because it will give consumers greater protections. It will create a register of carriage service providers. It will enable the direct enforcement of industry codes, which is crucial. It will amend the existing two-step process for the application of penalty amounts for infringement notices. This is a really important one: it will increase the maximum penalty for breaches of the code from $250,000 to $10 million. That's important because it means that, if providers are doing the wrong thing and they are letting their consumers down and letting our communities down, there is a significant cost that they will bear from these penalties.

The new carriage service provider registration scheme will require all telecommunications providers to apply to ACMA, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, for registration to operate in Australia. This will provide ACMA, as the regulator for the sector, with visibility of all operators in the Australian market, of which there are an estimated 1,500. This will ensure ACMA is able to educate, monitor and, where necessary, take swift enforcement action for breaches of the code or standard.

The bill will make compliance with industry codes mandatory. It's removing the current two-step process whereby ACMA issues a warning for breaches of the code. This will ensure more immediate action can be taken for breaches of the code. We shouldn't gloss over the significance of that. The reality is that most organisations will do the right thing. But, if you're looking to do the wrong thing and you're looking at the regulations, you go, 'Well, as a first step, I'll do what I like because I'm just going to get a warning as a consequence.' As a parent of two children, I know that warnings don't go very far. So that's an important change, and it's a change that the sector has called for, because, in fairness to the sector, many do the right thing, and we need to protect organisations that do the right thing and punish those that do the wrong thing.

Unfortunately, there have been many examples of organisations doing the wrong thing. Between September 2023 and September 2024, ACMA issued 23 enforcement actions, 12 formal warnings, two remedial directions, 20 directions to comply, two enforceable undertakings, infringement notices totalling close to $7 million and in one case court proceedings. This shows and highlights the importance of these reforms and the importance of making sure that every organisation is registered. But it also shows, again, how disappointing it is that we've had to wait three years for this bill to come to the House. And, as I said, we would not be here except for, ironically enough, the cyclone in Queensland. I know, Deputy Speaker Vasta, that as a Queenslander you understand the need for the delay.

Some of these breaches relate to people's safety, which is of the highest priority. As an example, there were seven notices issued to providers in 2024 for breaches of the emergency call database rules. These rules require the telco providers to keep a person's telephone number and address updated so that, when the number calls triple 0, emergency services like our police, fire and ambulance are deployed to the address that is correct the first time. Adherence to this code is vital. People's lives literally depend on it. In this role, as we all know, we have the opportunity to engage with our emergency services—ambulance, CFA, local police—and, as they say to me and as we would all know and imagine, when people are making that call to triple 0, it is at a time of high stress. There is so much going on. By definition, there is a significant emergency happening. So having that number and being able to ping the address correctly and not rely on a human that is under significant stress at that time is crucial. It's an example of how having the correct rules and strong telecommunications in place can be the difference between life and death.

As I said at the start of this speech, in my community, reliable telecommunications are vital, but they're also an ongoing challenge. I've seen and we've seen as a community the importance of reliable communications in many weather events, including the June storms of 2021. At that time, my wife and I were locked in our house. A tree fell down in front of our house; we literally couldn't leave. We lost power and then, after a few hours, we lost communications. It hit us very hard when we realised—we had the conversation at the time—that, if one of the trees around our house fell through our house and injured one of us, we didn't have the ability to call for the help we would have needed from the SES or the CFA. That is a living example of how vulnerable we are as individuals and as community members without these communications.

Recently, 2½ weeks ago, we saw the importance of telecommunications in Montrose, as a bushfire took hold and, unfortunately, houses were damaged and lost. The CFA—and I want to thank Matt and the team at Montrose CFA and all the CFA members from our community who came out in support to suppress that fire—the FRV crews, Forest Fire Management and air support from helicopters fought the fire all day and got it within containment lines in the early evening. So, many residents went to bed believing it was safe. However, with any emergency and with any fire, it's a dynamic environment. That fire reared its head and skipped containment lines, and it wasn't long before the VicEmergency app started beeping. Residents woke around midnight to find that the fire had escalated and that embers were flying towards local homes. The warning was quickly updated to 'take shelter now' for a larger area of the community. It shows just how quickly things can escalate and how vital it is that we have reliable telecommunications.

In the days after, when the fire was contained but still being controlled, communications came to the fore, and I want to pay credit to Liz at the Montrose CFA. As people would see fire trucks going through town, choppers flying overhead and different beeps on the emergency app, Liz was providing real-time information to the community through Facebook and on the Montrose fire brigade's Facebook page. Ironically, Liz should have been out on the fire lines, but she's recently had knee surgery and she was at the station. But it turned out that was where she needed to be. I was there at the Montrose Community Market on Saturday two weeks ago, when residents were coming up and thanking her for the communications she had given them to make sure they knew what they needed to do and for playing a crucial role in relieving their stress and anxiety.

In my community we have beautiful mountains and topography, but our terrain makes communications more of a challenge. That's why the former coalition government funded and delivered towers across the Yarra Ranges, in East Warburton, McMahons Creek, Reefton, Mount Evelyn, Steels Creek and two in Chum Creek. We also committed to towers in Silvan and Menzies Creek, and these are in the planning stages and will be operational soon. It was the coalition in 2013, as the member for Riverina would well know, that established the Mobile Black Spot Program to solve this challenge not just in Casey but across the country. It is a legacy that we should be proud of as a coalition because it's making a difference in many communities all across the country. And that's why I'll continue to fight for the telecommunications coverage that we deserve. Connectivity is above politics. It's about saving lives in emergencies and making sure farmers can get the support they need to clear and collect their crops and communities can stay connected. In a regional community—a community like mine—your neighbour isn't 50 metres away; they can be hundreds of metres or hundreds of kilometres away. Communications with them and others is vital.

Since the bushfire in Montrose, I've been contacted by local residents, including those in the Dandenong Ranges, because Montrose sits at the foot of the Dandenong Ranges. They were rightly concerned—and it was a genuine threat—that, had the wind been going the other way, the fire would have ravaged up the mountain. It does not take long—between six and 10 minutes if the conditions are catastrophic—to send that fire up the mountain. They were concerned about their ability to receive emergency alert messages, after the communications in our community fell silent in the June storms of 2021. Those storms caused so much widespread damage—fallen trees and powerlines—which impacted critical infrastructure and our communications networks. Many residents at that time experienced difficulties in receiving emergency information via the traditional methods during the storm and in the days following.

My community wants to see reliable communications right across the electorate of Casey, because it's not just in the bushfire season when we need to be alert; it's during winter as well, because, once the bushfire risks subside, our community prepares for storms, flooding and other wet weather events. It's why we always need to advocate for stronger communications, and that's why this bill is important. The changes in this bill will strengthen the regulator's powers to ensure the regulatory regime is as robust as it can be and that operators are held to the highest standards. The increase in penalties will align the telecommunications penalty framework to those in the energy and banking sectors, competition legislation and the Australian Consumer Law.

This is an important bill, but I'll finish where I started. It is disappointing that it has taken three years for the Albanese Labor government to bring this bill to the House. It is disappointing that, despite its importance, it looks like it will not pass in this term of the parliament, and that is something that the government has to own. They've had three years to deliver these changes and they have not delivered. We will hear from those opposite about how important this is and how needed it is. Well, the question is: why didn't the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the Minister for Communications act and bring this legislation on earlier?

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