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

On 10 March 1876 the first telephone call was made by Alexander Graham Bell. Bell demonstrated his ability by transmitting a call to his assistant, Thomas Watson. The first words transmitted were:

Mr Watson, come here—I want to see you.

Come forward almost 150 years, and there are few areas in our lives that have undergone such enormous change than in telecommunications. Every week there is a new model, a new feature or a new innovation. The corollary is that every week those features that were once cutting edge enter the ever-growing pantheon of obsolescence. Connectivity is surely one of the key and defining features of our lives nowadays. In truth, it is both a blessing and a curse.

During the early days of the COVID pandemic, connectivity became even more important. As we isolated during the pandemic, it became crucial that we could connect with work, education and, most importantly, our loved ones to ensure that everyday life continued as much as was available to us. Nothing is better than communicating with friends and relatives around the world or having a Teams meeting with a colleague, but there are few things worse than a full inbox and when you wake up every morning to endless spam. Nonetheless, this is the age that we live in, and the challenge for governments around the world is to ensure that legislative frameworks and protections are in place to protect the public as they use these new and ever-changing forms of telecommunication.

The bill that comes before us today unequivocally legislates better protections for telco consumers. It puts consumers at the front and centre of the telecommunication industry. It will do this by giving effect to the number of significant reforms to boost the enforcement powers of the Australian Communications and Media Authority—the ACMA. The proposed changes in this bill will enable the ACMA to take immediate and direct enforcement action against telecommunication providers that have breached their obligations to customers under industry codes. In doing so, it will remove the two-step and somewhat lengthy process that is currently in place. The measures in this bill will ensure that ACMA is an empowered and effective regulator and also that there are incentive structures in place to drive better behaviours by the telecommunications companies.

Further, the bill will also increase the penalties for breaches of the industry codes. Specifically, the maximum general penalty will rise from $250,000 to approximately $10 million. Indeed, based on the value of the benefit obtained from the offending contact by the relevant provider, penalties greater than $10 million may be allowed. These huge increases in penalties will incentivise the industry into compliance and better align the telco industry with other relevant sectors, such as energy and banking. The bill will also expand and clarify the government's ability to increase the infringement notice penalty amounts that ACMA can issue for all applicable breaches, including consumer protection rules.

Finally, the bill will establish a carrier service provider—CSP—registration scheme. This, in turn, will allow for more effective regulation of CSPs, including the empowerment of ACMA to stop a CSP where they have been found to pose an unacceptable risk to consumers or have significant consumer harm. The introduction of the CSP registration scheme will also improve pathways for the ACMA to educate carriage service providers on their regulatory obligations, streamline complaints and compliance processes and create a better overall market accountability.

When Alexander Graham Bell made his famous phone call all those years ago, he would not have been able to imagine the advancements and breakthroughs to come, but the essence of his invention—to enrich our lives—remains unchanged. That is, telecommunications should help us and be our servers, not cause endless and needless frustration or inconvenience. The bill before us takes consumer rights seriously and vastly improves the compliance enforcement regime for users. It helps ensure that ACMA is fit for purpose and empowered to be an effective regulator. The reforms in this bill have received strong support from stakeholders, including the Consumer Action Law Centre, the Communications Alliance and the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network. The bill is another way that this government is putting Australian consumers on the centre of what we do and recognises the importance of quality telecommunication services for all Australians.

I commend the bill to the House.

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