Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy Affordability) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025. The bill makes important changes to the Telecommunications Act to strengthen consumer safeguards—something we all agree is a top priority. The bill will create a register of carriage service providers, enable the direct enforcement of industry codes, amend the existing two-step process for the application of penalty amendments for infringement notices, and increase the maximum penalty amount for breaches of the codes from $250,000 to $10 million.

The new carriage service provider registration scheme will require all telecommunications providers to apply to the Australian Communications and Media Authority for registration to operate in Australia. This will provide ACMA as a regulator for the sector with visibility of all of the 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 any codes or standards. Should providers breach their obligations or pose a risk to consumers, ACMA will have the ability to cancel their ability to operate. These arrangements are similar to those in the energy sector, where the Australian Energy Regulator has the power to exclude operators from the market where there is a risk to consumers.

As part of the scheme, providers will also be required to report all cybersecurity incidents. Where there is a cyber breach, the appropriate bodies must be notified and remedial action taken swiftly. Full visibility of all telecommunications operators will also ensure ACMA can target compliance and enforcement activity and, where necessary, take appropriate action. Stakeholders have raised some concerns with us about the scheme, primarily around the application process and the need to ensure there is limited administrative burden on providers, particularly the smaller operators. There is also some concern around a provider's ability to contest the decision to deny registration, or registration renewal, to ensure that they have appropriate appeal channels. We have raised these matters with Minister Rowland's office, who assured us that these will be addressed administratively and there is no need to amend the legislation.

Schedule 2 of the bill amends the Telecommunications Act to make registered industry codes directly enforceable by ACMA. The telecommunications industry has a co-regulation model by which industry is responsible for the preparation of codes, which are then submitted to ACMA for registration. Once a code is registered with ACMA and in force, the code must be complied with by the sector. In practice, what has been established under the act is a two-step enforcement process. If there is a complaint, a wrongdoing or a breach of an industry code, ACMA will direct a provider to comply—essentially, issue a warning to do the right thing and to get their house in order. Should they not, ACMA's enforcement powers then become available. This enforcement action can include penalties through the Federal Court, enforceable undertakings and issuing an infringement notice. Currently, part 6 of the act says:

Compliance with an industry code is voluntary unless ACMA directs a particular participant in the telecommunications industry … to comply with the code.

This phrasing has led to a misconception that compliance with industry codes is voluntary. As the explanatory memorandum to the bill states that, while code compliance is technically voluntary, after ACMA issues a direction to comply, or a formal warning to a provider, ACMA can take enforcement action if the provider continues its non-compliance. Between September 2023 and September 2024, ACMA issues 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. Some of these breaches relate to people's safety, which is of the highest priority. For 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 000, emergency services like police, fire or ambulances, are deployed to the correct address the first time. Adherence to this code is vital. People's lives depend on it.

The requirement to monitor and report suspected scams and spoof numbers is another important one. If telcos aren't adhering to the code, the impact on people financially, psychologically and emotionally is significant. In 2024, phone scams had the highest overall losses of scam types, with more than $107 million lost by nearly 2,200 people. ACMA issued nine breaches of the scams code last year but none resulted in a financial penalty to providers. That's because of the two-step process. People's safety and wellbeing is of the utmost importance.

The changes in this bill will strengthen ACMA's powers and the speed at which they can use them to provide even greater protections for consumers and ensure that we have responsible operators in our telecommunications sector. The bill will make compliance with industry codes mandatory, removing the requirement for a two-step process before ACMA can then take action—no more warning shots—ensuring more immediate action can be taken for breaches of the codes. I will note, given much scrutiny of the telecommunication sector over recent years, this is a change the sector itself has called for, notably the Communications Alliance, which represents the telecommunication industry and has been calling for these reforms since 2023. These changes will strengthen the regulator's powers to ensure that the regulatory regime is as robust as it can be and that operators are held to the highest standards.

Finally, the bill will increase the penalties issued to providers for breaches of industry codes and standards from $250,000 to $10 million. The revised penalty framework will also allow penalties to be based on the value of the benefit obtained from the breach of conduct or the turnover of the provider, allowing for penalties of greater than $10 million should it be deemed appropriate. The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission have long advocated for civil penalty reform to ensure penalties for breaches of codes and standards reflect the severity of the breach and harm caused. The increase in the penalties will address this and align the telecommunications penalty framework to those in the energy and banking sectors, competition, legislation and Australian consumer law.

The coalition will support the bill. It strengthens consumer protections, streamlines enforcement activity and provides greater visibility of operators in the market. This is the sort of legislation this parliament should be focused on, legislation that protects Australians. Disappointingly, though, this bill has entered the parliament on the eve of an election and is unlikely to pass the Senate and become law before the parliament is prorogued. What is more disappointing is that this bill took second place behind the Albanese government's NBN commitment to public ownership bill, which this parliament has spent hours debating so the Albanese government could attempt to revive their privatisation scare campaign. That bill does nothing for Australian consumers, nothing to protect them from the cost of living, nothing to protect them from never-ending price increases of energy bills or when at the petrol bowser and nothing to protect them from interest rate increases. Yet it is, again, this week before the Senate, prioritised over bills that might actually make a difference.

The NBN bill is nothing more than a political stunt and tells you everything you need to know about this weak and failing government. The Albanese government's priorities are all wrong. The shutdown of the 3G network was a complete mess. Thousands of consumers have been left with worse coverage or no coverage at all, particularly those in regional and remote areas. Our farmers have had their agtech equipment rendered useless. There is no coverage on their properties to call triple 0 if there is an accident or an emergency. People with life-saving health devices are having to charge them constantly because the device is searching for a signal that isn't coming, rendering the device useless—because it isn't on them; it's on charge. It isn't good enough, and the Albanese Labor government should be ashamed of their lack of response to help people impacted.

And where is the government's legislation to reduce gambling harm? No, we haven't seen it. It's been a long time coming. It is not here in the House nor the Senate. But the coalition brought forward legislation. The Australian Greens even brought forward legislation. Even the crossbench has brought forward legislation. The government have refused to support a single one of these bills that would protect Australians and their families from gambling harm. They've offered nothing of their own.

There's been no action by this government to implement laws against 'posting and boasting' acts of crimes online, despite crime being a significant national concern in each and every one of our communities across this country. Offenders of youth crime, in particular, are using social media in an effort to one up each other online with brazen acts of vandalism, breaking and entering, stealing cars and violence to gain notoriety. Despite my predecessor, the member for Banks, introducing a bill to this parliament that would take strong action on this terrible trend—which included imposing jail terms and providing stronger social media take-down powers—the Albanese government has refused to allow it to be debated.

It is unsurprising, though, given they had to be dragged kicking and screaming to take action to protect our kids online from social media harms, only doing something about it after the Leader of the Opposition announced the coalition's policy. Shame on the Albanese government for prioritising political stunts over practical and impactful legislation that will help Australians.

Dan Repacholi (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to contribute to the debate on the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025. This bill represents a crucial step forward, ensuring that telecommunication providers are held accountable for the services that they provide and the obligations that they owe to their customers.

Communication is fundamental to the human experience and, in our day, to existence. We need to be able to communicate with people. It is the very foundation of our social structures, our economies and our democracies. Throughout history, the ability to communicate effectively and efficiently has driven human advancement. Today we can connect with people around the world in seconds. We can conduct business, maintain relationships and access vital services with a click of a button. This unprecedented ease of communication has opened doors to opportunities that previous generations could have only dreamed of.

But, as incredible as our telecommunications infrastructure has become, we know it's not perfect. In fact, for too many Australians, it's a source of frustration and hardship. Poor service, misleading contracts, billing errors and unresponsive customer support have left many consumers feeling powerless in their dealings with big telecommunications companies. We have heard all the stories of people left without phone or internet services for weeks, being overcharged with no clear path to a resolution or being ignored by providers that fail to uphold even the most basic standards of service. The current telecommunications consumer protection framework exists to prevent harm, but it is clear that it has not kept pace with industry practices and consumer expectations. Too many people remain vulnerable. That's why this government has taken decisive action to strengthen safeguards, particularly for those experiencing financial hardship, domestic violence and other vulnerabilities.

This bill is about more than just regulation; it's about ensuring fairness. It enhances the compliance and enforcement powers of the Australian Communications and Media Authority to hold telecommunications providers accountable. A key measure is the elimination of the ineffective two-step enforcement process, which currently allows companies to breach consumer protection rules without immediate consequences. Under the existing system, the ACMA must first issue a direction to a company before taking further action, essentially granting big telcos a free pass on their first violation. This loophole has allowed bad actors to operate with impunity, disregarding their responsibilities, while consumers suffer. This bill removes that loophole. It empowers the ACMA to take direct and immediate enforcement action against telcos that fail to meet their obligations. This change ensures that breaches are met with swift consequences, reinforcing the message that consumer rights cannot be ignored.

Another major component of this legislation is the significant increase in penalties for noncompliance. The maximum general penalty for breaching industry codes and standards under the Telecommunications Act 1997 is currently capped at $250,000, an amount that in 1997 may have been a meaningful deterrent, but, in 2025, for multibillion-dollar telecommunications companies this sum is nothing more than a minor operational cost. This bill increases the maximum penalty to approximately $10 million and, in certain cases, allows penalties to be based on the value of the benefit obtained from misconduct or the revenue of the offending provider. This approach ensures penalties have real teeth. Telecommunications companies will no longer be able to view fines as just another cost of doing business. Instead, they will face financial consequences substantial enough to deter unethical behaviour and incentivise compliance. These changes bring the telecommunications sector in line with other heavily regulated industries, such as banking and energy, and align telecommunications regulation with the broader Australian consumer law.

To further support enforcement efforts, the bill expands the government's ability to increase infringement notice penalty amounts issued by the ACMA. This ensures that penalties remain proportionate with the nature of the violation, strengthening incentives for industry compliance and protecting Australian consumers.

Beyond enforcement and penalties, this bill also increases transparency in the telecommunications market. It establishes a carrier service provider, or CSP, registration scheme, a long overdue measure that will allow more effective oversight of telecommunications retailers. This scheme grants ACMA the power to prevent high-risk or harmful providers from operating in the market, ensuring that only those that meet strict standards are allowed to provide services in this country, in Australia. This is common sense. No company that poses an unacceptable risk to consumers should be permitted to continue operating unchecked. The maximum tolerance for providers that exploit or harm consumers should be zero.

These reforms are implemented through four key schedules. Schedule 1 establishes the CSP registration scheme, helping to prevent high-risk providers from operating and stopping those that have already caused harm. Schedule 2 makes industry codes directly enforceable, equipping the ACMA with the necessary tools to address harm and ensure compliance. Schedule 3 modernises the penalty framework by increasing the maximum general civil penalty from a mere $250,000 to 30,300 penalty units, currently equalling up to $9.9 million, bringing it in line with other regulated sectors. Schedule 4 clarifies and extends the authority of the Minister for Communications to increase infringement notice penalties, ensuring that breaches of telecommunication rules are met with appropriate consequences. These changes will provide stronger protections for consumers right across this country. They demonstrate our government's commitment to ensuring Australians receive the telecommunication services they deserve—services that are reliable, fair and accountable to the people that they serve.

For my constituents in the Hunter electorate, one of the most frustrating and damaging issues has been regular telecommunications outages and the lack of accountability from providers. I can tell you that I am sick of it in my office, so I can only imagine what the people of the Hunter feel. The Hunter is a large and diverse region encompassing rural, regional and urban areas, and each of these face distinct challenges in addressing reliable telecommunications services. Over the past few years, there have been several major outages that have significantly impacted on the daily lives of residents and businesses right there in the Hunter.

One such incident occurred during the 2022 storm season when severe weather caused widespread damage to telecommunications infrastructure across the region. For days, many residents were left without phone or internet services. While such storms understandably cause disruptions, the ways these outages were handled by the telecommunications providers were unacceptable and absolutely atrocious. In many instances, service providers failed to offer timely updates or clear communication about the restoration process. There was little to no information shared with affected consumers and customers about the extent of the damage or the timeline for their repairs. People were left in the dark, with no way of knowing when they could expect to get their services back. For some, this meant being completely cut off from emergency services, essential communications and online platforms for work or education.

In rural and regional areas like those in the Hunter, many people rely heavily on telecommunications for business and education. Farmers and small-business owners in the region were hit especially hard, with several unable to complete vital transactions, contact suppliers or stay in touch with consumers. One constituent, a farmer from the Upper Hunter, reported losing several days work during an outage that left him without internet access. With no way to communicate with his clients, he suffered significant financial losses that would have been entirely avoidable had services been properly maintained and the outage better managed.

Similarly, during these outages, there was a stark lack of responsiveness from telecommunications providers. Many residents tried to reach out to customer service only to be met with long wait times, unhelpful responses and a lack of accountability. In some cases, providers failed to acknowledge that the services had gone down until days after the issue had started. By the time any meaningful updates were shared, the damage was already done. Many businesses suffered and many families were left without critical means of communication.

The communication failure does not stop at outages. Many residents have experienced frustration over ongoing issues like billing areas, dropped out phone calls and unreliable internet. Yet, when consumers raise these issues, they often feel dismissed or ignored by these large telecommunications companies. One constituent shared their experience of repeatedly reporting poor internet speeds and being told that the problem was being looked into, only for nothing to improve. The feeling of being powerless in the face of unresponsive telecommunications companies has led to the growing sense of disillusionment between them all. These repeated outages, combined with poor communications, are a clear sign of systematic failures within the telecommunications industry.

Consumers are expected to rely on these services for essential activities—health care, work, education and even staying in touch with loved ones. When these services fail, the impacts are not just inconvenient; they affect people's ability to function in society. What makes matters even worse is that the companies responsible for these services are not held accountable for their negligence. There is no meaningful compensation or apology for the harm caused to residents and no significant deterrent in place to prevent these outages from occurring into the future.

With the existing regulatory framework, these providers can continue to cut corners and neglect their obligations, knowing that any consequences would likely be very minimal. This is where the reform in the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill comes in. By empowering the ACMA with the ability to act swiftly in the face of such outages and by increasing the penalties for poor service and poor communications, this bill will ensure that telecommunications providers in the Hunter and across Australia take their responsibilities more seriously. If a provider fails to deliver the services that consumers are paying for, they will now face real consequences. This includes a much-needed focus on improving transparency, providing timely updates during service disruptions and ensuring that consumers are kept informed every step of the way. In addition to increased penalties, we'll make sure that the financial cost for failing to meet consumer standards is substantial enough to prevent companies from cutting corners.

The provisions in this bill, such as the new carrier service, the CSP, registration scheme will make sure that providers who harm consumers or fail to meet basic service standards will no longer be allowed to operate unchecked. This is especially crucial in regions like the Hunter where many areas are still underrepresented or have limited access to reliable telecommunications infrastructure. The changes in this bill are not just fixing the system for the future; they are about addressing the failures that have already hurt so many Australians.

For the people of the Hunter electorate, these reforms represent a much-needed shift towards fairer treatment and greater accountability in the telecommunications sector. It is time that the big companies understand that they are accountable, not only to their shareholders but also to the people that they provide services to every single day of the week. The changes made in this bill to improve the compliance and enforcement of consumer safeguards are implemented through four schedules. These reforms work together to provide protection for the whole community. They benefit us all. These reforms also reflect the commitment to making sure that Australians are appropriately protected and supported in their interactions with telecommunications service providers.

It is also important to take note that the key players in the sector are right behind these changes. Organisations and bodies like the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, the Consumer Action Law Centre, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, the Australian Communications and Media Authority and the Communications Alliance are all on the same page. We're all fighting for this the same way. Everyone is on board, because even blind Freddy could see that things need to change. What we have now is just not good enough. It isn't working. As the old saying goes, if something isn't broken, don't fix it. But this system is broken. It is truly broken, and we are here to fix it. I've had constituents come to me feeling like they are being ripped off by their service providers, and constituents have told me that they pay for a service that does not always work and that they do not always get what they want from their service provider. As an Albanese Labor government, we are making this better. We will fix this problem. That's what this bill does. I commend the bill to the House.

Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025 has some worthy aims. It seeks to ensure telecommunications businesses do not treat consumer protection provisions and specifically their penalties as a cost of doing business. Consumers ought to be treated with respect, and from the perspective of the Nationals, especially in regional Australia, this bill would allow ACMA to directly enforce industry codes and increase the penalty amounts for infringement notices and civil penalties. By the by, this parliament passed legislation by the same name last May for consumers affected by the statutory infrastructure provider, SIP, scheme.

When it comes to safeguards for consumers, I want to talk about the frequent contact my office has with Telstra, including at the recent Wimmera Machinery Field Days at Dooen, just north of Horsham, where I had the opportunity to meet with many, many locals with just as many issues and concerns. I took constituents who came to talk with me about their Telstra issues down to the Telstra stand and raised one or two of my own. After all, I drive the length and breadth of the 83½ thousand square kilometres of my electorate and encounter many mobile black spots. Sometimes you even hit one at the same place as a bitumen black spot—that is, a pothole—which are opening up on our neglected Mallee roads. That is a case in point, actually. Our roads are increasingly more dangerous, and we have had some bushfires this summer, so good mobile coverage for emergency situations is critical. I went for a chat with Telstra with constituents at the Wimmera Machinery Field Days, and to their credit Telstra representatives were only too happy to help.

The following Thursday, 13 March, I was in the district again holding mobile offices, and it was my absolute pleasure to be at Beulah in Yarriambiack shire, standing alongside Mayor Kylie Zanker and community members Shaun Thompson and Graeme and Jenny Turnbull from the Beulah supermarket action group, with many others, to announce that a coalition in government will provide $1.392 million to complement the $130,000 Shaun and the community have raised themselves to rebuild their supermarket. I remember all too well in 2019, the year I was elected member for Mallee, listening to distraught community members after the Beulah supermarket burnt down. I sincerely hope that we can get into government and get that supermarket built. Shortly after announcing the Coalition's funding commitment to Buehler supermarket, I went to the Buehler convenience store, the business centre which was once a hospital, to see the great job of repurposing that into a temporary supermarket. I note that money raised from the film The Dry has helped chip in financially to help keep Buehler's temporary store going.

I sat down in the business centre for a mobile office, and the first comments from everyone who came to speak with me were the same: 'Can you fix my phone signal?' Even my team and I onsite had trouble holding a mobile signal in the town. I got onto Telstra about that, and I am liaising with them to get some bars of signal back to Buehler. Incidentally, one lovely lady at the Buehler mobile office said, when asked about her Telstra signal, that hers is fine because she's with Optus! But then she mentioned, 'It's only okay on the verandah, not inside the house.' Were she, say, to have a fall and her mobile phone be the only communication device handy, how would she get out onto the verandah?

This is the lived experience in regional Australia, particularly in rural and remote towns. Their signal is patchy at best. I do ask the minister, while we are here, to bring to the House a government position on the 3G signal shutdown, because the anecdotal view from my constituents is that the mishandled 3G shutdown has now seen regional mobile telecommunications signals worsen, not get better. I dare the Albanese government to call regional Australians stupid, because there was a surge in complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman between October and December. That's 13 per cent more than in the previous quarter, including 190 complaints about the 3G shutdown in October, which rose to 566 in November. To quote the ombudsman, Cynthia Gebert:

It is encouraging to see the drop-off in 3G shutdown complaints in December, yet we are continuing to hear from people in rural and regional Victoria who are facing ongoing challenges. I implore the telcos to keep working on solutions that ensure equal access to reliable and phone and internet service for all people in Australia.

So my constituents, with my electorate covering one third of regional Victoria, were those lacking safeguards from this government when it came to the 3G shutdown. This bill is, after all, about consumer safeguards, and as I've said, what greater safeguard can you have than reliable mobile service in locations where you could encounter an emergency, like home? Indeed, as we recently experienced in devastating bushfires in Little Desert and the Grampians, let's remember, too, that Labor have not financed a single mobile tower in Mallee in this term of office—not one. I've lost count of how many we financed when in government. When we talk about safeguards for consumers, let's talk about all consumers, including regional Australians. I do go back to the Prime Minister's statement when he was elected that not one Australian would be left behind. Well, I'd say—woohoo!—the Mallee are included.

On black spots for regional Australians, I note that West Wimmera Shire put a number of submissions to the Round 8 Project Noticeboard, and Pyrenees Shire put in one for the CFA tower at Moonambel. I'm asking the minister to bring us a guarantee that a funding round will proceed and that this successful program will keep going as the Mobile Black Spot Program into the future. Regional Australians have no such confidence in this Labor government.

This brings me to the fanfare of the Albanese government pointing up in the sky and saying, 'Look up there—a UOMO!' What is a UOMO? Is it like FOMO, even though regional Australians cannot avoid missing out? Or is UOMO a man, which is apparently what 'uomo' means in Italian? Is it a bird, a plane or a bar of signal? No; a UOMO is the Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation. I think, given my constituents' experience with Optus at Buehler, the 'outdoor' word must be important. You need to be on the verandah, not inside the house.

I know this government has been eager to claim that the Leader of the Opposition is having thought bubbles, but you really have to ask how bubbly this thought is from Minister Rowland. I hope she can fill us in. The government announcement is that legislation will be introduced this year. Well, with the election imminent, we're already effectively halfway through the year. And they say UOMO will be implemented by late 2027, a bit like Labor's electric car and greenhouse gas emission projections. But I digress.

UOMO apparently depends on identified flying objects, the low-Earth-orbit satellites, and direct-to-device technology allowing phones to be satellite phones. It sounds pretty straightforward. But, given the experience my constituents had with the bungled and stumbling 3G shutdown, how much more are regional Australians going to be asked to fork out to upgrade their handsets to UOMO? Will government and/or their telco give them a new handset?

The minister spruiked UOMO, saying you will have a signal almost anywhere that Australians can see the sky. That doesn't sound like inside your house, unless you put in a skylight, take the roof off or cough up more money for another device so you can get the same signal people enjoy at no additional cost in, say, Blacktown.

Some would argue that the right to communicate, including telecommunications, is a basic human right. Somehow, I feel this UOMO business isn't an attempt to tip the hat to FOMO or UFOs but to another acronym: USO, the universal service obligation. We have it with public utilities, where people pay the same price and get effectively the same service, wherever they live in Australia. We will have to wait and see if yet another enhancing consumer safeguards bill emerges to hold telcos to the UOMO as well. Nonetheless, I sincerely hope that this work is the work of the future coalition government in May. We aim to be on the other side of the House, and we will get a good look at how bubbly this thought bubble actually was.

But, when you consider that Labor couldn't even deliver on their own selective black-spot fund for Labor electorates, committed to before the last election, how will they be able to deliver for the rest of regional Australia? Labor couldn't even deliver under the selective improving-mobile-coverage round in several parts of Eden-Monaro or in parts of Robertstown, Braddon or Macquarie.

Mr Albanese's slogan before the election was 'No-one left behind, no-one held back'. But Mallee constituents have been held back, with no mobile towers and crumbling, dangerous roads, railroaded by the Albanese government's Rewiring the Nation agenda to cover Mallee in a spider's web of transmission lines, a pincushion of wind turbines and a series of mineral sands mining proposals, all emboldened by an Albanese government that is leaving farming communities behind or, worse, walking all over them. It is holding farming communities back, and, I've got to say, they are distressed. Labor are trying to convert Mallee into an industrial wasteland, taking away its primary industry: a sustainable, productive, agricultural industry. All they think is 'out of sight of the inner cities, out of mind'.

Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour.