Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

For some time now, the world has been fundamentally underpinned by technology. For better or worse, an Australian now treats the mobile phone as an extension of themselves, so much so that your pocket will sometimes vibrate despite nothing being in there.

An Australian today will, according to one estimate, spend an average of nearly 17 years of their life looking at a screen. That accounts for work, play, education and socialising—absolutely everything that a human does. That dependence extends not just to the way we interact with our world but also to our behaviour and emotions, to a point where people feel as if they cannot live without that technology. As a collective, Australia, like the rest of the world, has that same dependence.

Countries grind to a complete halt without their technological infrastructure and assets. When the internet is going slow or goes down completely, it can ruin businesses. It can cut Aussies off from essential services and prevent them from contacting their loved ones, as we found out in November 2023. That outage alone was estimated to cost customers and the wider nation approximately $2 billion or more in economic activity.

On an individual level, that one outage meant that 228 calls to 000 couldn't be connected. It meant that 228 instances of an Aussie trying to get emergency assistance couldn't be done. That outage lasted just 12 hours and affected just one national network—in that case, the Optus network.

For all of that technology, as the linchpin of the Australian public at home, work and everywhere, and as the fuel that drives the Australian economy—and on top of that our sovereign capability—and ensures our security, it is reliant on the telecommunications sector to operate it. An Australian at work, making calls, sending e-mails or whatever it is, is totally dependent on a carrier like Telstra or Optus to get that work done.

Aussies are also totally dependent on telcos to get in contact with others, to receive and pay their bills and to access essential services. So it's clear that Australia's telcos have a huge role to play in people's lives and have a huge influence on the Australian way of life. But that influence means telcos must be held accountable by the Australians they serve.

Unfortunately, we have witnessed cases where carriers have been alleged by the ACCC to be doing the wrong thing and where the Aussies who depend on the telco's service have, instead, been a victim of them. For example, forking out for services they haven't asked for, perhaps not realising they are purchasing additional products. Worse still, in the particular instance I'm referencing, the Australians targeted were said to be financially vulnerable as well as those living with mental disabilities. While this matter is being followed up appropriately, and the telco in this case has acknowledged this issue, consumers are being exploited by the service they depend on. This cannot be allowed to happen.

That is exactly why the Labor government is coming in with this bill, because we are working to ensure that it does not happen again. The Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025 achieves this in two ways. Firstly, it gives the government more teeth, through the Australian Communications and Media Authority, to take immediate action against telcos that are breaching their current obligations. Secondly, it enhances the penalty regime in a way that both introduces the correct measures when a telco does the wrong thing as well as incentivises an entity to prevent their conduct from getting to this point at all.

This bill is both reactive, in an effective, meaningful way to hold telcos to account as well as in a preventative one to ensure providers are aware of their obligations, how they should be met and the consequences for them when they are not. This is what a healthy telecommunications sector needs in a modern Australia, and I'm proud to be able to contribute to the bill.

The Labor government has already made significant progress towards enhancing our communications sector and, in particular, towards protecting consumers. This is exemplified in particular by ACMA's financial hardship industry standard, which was implemented in March 2024 in response to a direction from the Minister for Communications. The standard makes it mandatory for telcos to better support customers struggling to pay their phone and internet bills. This means telcos are now prioritising keeping customers connected, as they always should, when their customers are faced with financial hardship. It means requiring telcos to offer specific assistance to customers facing hardship, such as payment plans, to help keep them connected, and this standard provides ACMA with strong enforcement powers to make sure this is happening. As well as ensuring Aussies are getting the fair go they deserve, this is another way the Labor government is helping take pressure off families. That's especially so up north. The reality is that thousands of families in Spence have had that tough conversation with a telco provider that they are dependent on to find another way to pay the bill. Labor is making policy with those conversations directly in mind.

Labor has also directed ACMA to include a domestic, family and sexual violence industry standard to ensure those who are seeking support over the phone or online are able to do so in a safe, secure and reliable manner. Measures as part of this include minimum requirements for telco policies and staff training, prohibiting alleged perpetrators being connected to victims and tighter privacy rules. This standard also removes requirements for victims to tell their stories multiple times, and, going back to cost-of-living measures, it makes telcos recognise domestic and family violence as a potential cause of payment difficulties and what disconnection could mean for someone vulnerable. Consumers are being looked out for under the Albanese Labor government.

Schedule 1 establishes a carriage service provider registration scheme. This forces telcos, in particular retailers of telecommunications products, to become licensed before they sell their services. In turn, as a result of the licensing scheme, this increases the visibility of CSPs to both the public and the wider market. This means that telco operators whose services have are being sold can make sure their obligations are being met. It also means, because the market is more transparent with such a scheme, that ACMA has an extra leg up to better regulate it and enforce both obligations and penalties. This puts the conduct of telco retailers and, by extension, providers straight out into the open to be scrutinised and regulated appropriately to make sure consumers are getting a fair deal.

Schedule 2 makes the industry codes directly enforceable. Currently, when a telco has breached their obligations to their customers, as set out under industry codes, a slow two-step process follows. First, ACMA must issue a direction to comply to offending telcos, no matter how urgent or significant the breach is, and, second, they can only take further action if the noncompliance continues. Before this bill, it's was if telcos could do the wrong thing once and not get penalised if it occurred again. This bill fixes that. Under the new legislation, if a telco does the wrong thing, ACMA can now take enforcement action the moment a telco does the wrong thing, rather than wait for further noncompliance. Telcos are powerful, and, if that power is being misused, it must stop the moment it is detected, to protect consumers. That's what this bill does.

This may seem obvious, but telcos are highly profitable organisations. This means that penalties for breaches of the industry codes and standards should match the wealth of the telco to provide an adequate deterrent. That's exactly what this bill does. It increases the maximum general civil penalty for such breaches from $250,000 to $9.9 million. The bill also modernises the penalty framework as a whole, effectively allowing for penalties to be scaled beyond the $9.9 million mark based on the wealth gained from the misconduct committed. For example, if a telco was found to have done the wrong thing and gained $15 million from its conduct, this legislation allows for penalties to go higher in order to account for that profit, as it should. In the same way consumers are deterred from doing the wrong thing every day via the law, telcos need adequate punishments, should they do the wrong thing, in order to stop consumers being taken for a ride.

Schedule 4 complements the previous one, by allowing the minister to increase any infringement notice penalty ACMA can issue for breaches of telecommunications rules. Again, this is a modern bill for a modern industry, ensuring deterrents can be scaled appropriately and allowing for greater reactivity based on the circumstances of a breach.

The Telecommunications Consumer Protection Code, from which penalties are enforced, is actively being reviewed right now, again as part of getting industry standard up to speed under this government. The revised code will include improvements to important areas, such as responsible selling practices, and has been developed in partnership between the regulator, ACMA, and industry, through the Communications Alliance. This review is currently ongoing, with public consultation having closed on 28 February. That stakeholder engagement is also another facet of the bill, as this legislation has strong support from key stakeholders in the telecommunications sector, including the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, Consumer Action Law Centre, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, the Australian Communications and Media Authority and the Communications Alliance.

Just to recap, consumer-centric protections for telecommunications customers are two-pronged—it strengthens ACMA, to give it teeth, increases deterrents on telcos. On the first end, ACMA will have powers to take direct and immediate enforcement action against telcos who have breached their obligations to customers. It's a departure from the current two-step process. Right now, ACMA must issue the first direction to comply to offending telcos, no matter how significant the breach, and only take further action if noncompliance continues. Now, ACMA can do it straightaway.

The second prong is that it increases the general penalty for those breaches from $250,000 to nearly $10 million. It also allows room for penalties to be based on the value of the benefit obtained from the effective offending conduct—as in a $20 billion benefit from an offence can be punished higher to the scale of the rorting. It aligns to other sectors, creating a uniform high standard of consumer relations, introducing a registration scheme for providers, to offer more transparency and accountability for customers. An example of what this is combating can be found in the form of Optus, which the ACCC alleged committed unconscionable conduct, breaking Australian consumer law. Optus are alleged to have sold hundreds of telecommunications goods and services that consumers did not want or need. Even worse, many of the consumers cited were experiencing vulnerability, financially and personally, and other disadvantages, such as living with a mental disability or limited cognitive capacity. Optus apologised and claimed to remedy the situation and take disciplinary action against staff. The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, ACCAN, wanted more and asked for direct regulation of the industry, hence this bill.

In closing, this is a much-needed modernisation of consumer protections in this country. As I've pointed out, this is a welcome enhancement to ACMA's capabilities and the penalty framework they can enforce in order to ensure telcos are deterred from doing the wrong thing. It also incentivises these companies to educate themselves about their obligations and to conduct themselves appropriately. This is significant in itself.

I want to finish by talking a little bit about what this bill means on a community level and what it means for families and households. I'm sure many of us in this place can attest to one of the people we represent coming into our offices and rightfully raising concerns about how difficult it can be to navigate the internal process of a telco. Especially for older or more vulnerable consumers, this can be an absolute maze of terms, conditions and phone calls. Again, just going back to the dependence Aussies have on these companies, that conversation is urgent. It's an experience that leaves an Australian wondering what their next phone bill is going to look like or if they're going to be able to use their phone tomorrow. That anxiety thousands of Australians in my community can relate to, especially when faced with a higher cost of living. That is what this legislation looks to address. This is a bill which, through appropriately holding telcos to account, gives certainty to the consumer that a provider or retailer will act in their interest. It's people-centric policy, something that has become a trademark of the legislation passed in this place over the last three years, and long may it continue.

Before I close, I want to say to every single constituent in my electorate of Spence and beyond, for that matter, that, if you are having difficulties with your telecommunication provider, if you've got issues with reception or if you are struggling with paying your bills and you don't know who to reach out to, a great first place to reach out to is your local federal member. We are here to help you. I encourage you to, please, pick up the phone, come into my office and sit down, and we'll do everything we can to get you on the right track. I commend this bill to the House.

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