Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Communications Legislation Amendment (Deregulation and Other Measures) Bill 2015 and the Telecommunications (Numbering Charges) Amendment Bill 2015. The value of these bills, although useful, should not be overstated. As I have said before in relation to these deregulation bills, you do not put out a press release when you vacuum the lounge room or mop the bathroom. But here we go again—that is effectively what the government is doing. It is making a considerably big deal about something which is straightforward—a rudimentary cleaning-up exercise.

To make that clear, I will point out that the first deregulation bill for the telecommunications industry saved the industry something like $35 million. The second one saved the industry around $350,000. Now, according to the explanatory memorandum for this bill, this one will save the industry absolutely nothing at all. Having said that, the bills are straightforward and we will not oppose them in this place.

The Communications Legislation Amendment (Deregulation and Other Measures) Bill makes a number of amendments to the Broadcasting Services Act. It modifies audit requirements; extends the classes of people able to make statutory declarations about gross earnings; provides the Australian Communications and Media Authority with discretion to waive small unpaid licence fees and any additional penalties; removes duplicated requirements to notify ACMA about certain changes in the control of media assets; amends auditing requirements for balance sheets and profit-and-loss accounts; repeals provisions to allow for a single classification scheme for all television programs, including films; and removes duplication in ACMA's complaint-handling and investigation processes and refines ACMA's powers of investigation with regard to complaints made about commercial and national broadcasters and datacasting services. This bill also removes tariff filing requirements for certain carriers and carriage service providers. It amends the role of the ACMA with regard to monitoring and reporting of information, and it repeals outdated legislation. Ironically, according to the explanatory memorandum, it also restores a provision that was repealed in the previous deregulation bill.

This latest deregulation legislation also provides a framework for the telecommunications industry to develop an industry scheme to manage telephone numbering. The purpose of the Telecommunications (Numbering Charges) Amendment Bill is to make consequential amendments to the Telecommunications (Numbering Charges) Act 1997 to reflect changes made by the deregulation bill. It inserts new definitions that are compatible with the establishment of an allocation system which is managed by an industry-based scheme manager.

The opposition have consulted with the telecommunications industry, including the Communications Alliance. We have also consulted with the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network and Free TV Australia, and they have indicated to us that they support the amendments in this bill. I thank the government for providing the opposition with a briefing on these bills earlier this week, and, as I said, we will not oppose them in this place.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Territories, Local Government and Major Projects) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It falls to me to sum up debate on the Communications Legislation Amendment (Deregulation and Other Measures) Bill 2015. The debate has been, I think, concise and effective. The shadow minister described the bills before the House this morning—I felt, uncharitably—as a rudimentary cleaning up exercise. I do not think that is any way an accurate characterisation of the measures in the bills before the House this morning. There are a range of measures which will reduce the regulatory burden on participants in the communications sector—for example, the bill will remove duplicative requirements for licensees, publishers and controllers to notify the Australian Communications and Media Authority of certain changes in control.

I want to particularly highlight the measures in the bill which will amend the Telecommunications Act and the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act, to enable the telecommunications industry to develop an industry-based scheme for the management of telephone numbering resources, potentially enabling greater efficiencies if industry develops a suitable scheme. Far from the dismissive characterisation given by the shadow minister that this bill comprises a series of rudimentary cleaning up exercises, this provision is, in fact, one potentially which could lead to a very significant change in the way the telecommunications industry deals with numbering. Presently, numbering is substantively handled by the regulator—the Australian Communications and Media Authority. In other countries, including the US and New Zealand, to a greater or lesser extent there are arrangements for the industry itself to manage the allocation of telephone numbers. It goes without saying that telephone numbers are an essential part of the operation of telecommunications networks, both fixed and mobile. Therefore, the means by which numbers are allocated to carriers and, in turn, their customers is an important part of the system working overall for the benefit of users.

The structure of the measures in the bill essentially establishes a framework under which the minister can—if he decided that he is satisfied—accept a proposal or a plan put forward by industry to assume control of numbering on a self-regulatory basis. There is plenty of work that needs to be done, but that framework allows a pathway, should the industry do that work. If that is done, then, in my view, it is going to be of significant importance and it will be an important deregulatory measure.

The bills are a further step in the Turnbull government's ongoing commitment to boost productivity by reducing onerous regulation while maintaining consumer safeguards. I commend the bills to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.