Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A great number of my Labor colleagues are speaking on the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025—there are not so many speakers on the other side—because this bill goes to the heart of what it means to be Labor.

The member for Hunter spoke on this bill. The member for Hunter is a champion of the people of his electorate, and he is here defending their rights in this area of policy and in so many others.

My friend the member for Bennelong spoke on this bill. I always look forward to hearing from the member for Bennelong, whose sage contributions in this place and in committees are always worth listening to. It is thanks to his work and advocacy that the government has confirmed an end to consumers being stuck with surcharges when paying with debit cards. We are all in his 'debit'! I trust the electors of Bennelong too will support him to continue to represent their interests in the 48th Parliament. My Western Australian colleague the member for Swan spoke on this bill, because, just as the member for Swan fought for major reforms around financial abuse, the people of Swan know that she has their back on consumer protection in the telecommunications sector.

The bill title contains enormously important words: enhancing consumer safeguards. In many ways those words go to the heart of what the Albanese Labor government stands for, what it works for and the people we represent. We know who consumers are and why they need safeguards. They are the people of Australia: people who live here, people who make purchases and people who engage in services in the belief that they are getting what it says on the box. The great majority of the people whose businesses provide and sell these services and products are as honest as the day is long. They are invaluable, generous and straight-up members of society. A few, however, necessitate the provision of enhanced consumer safeguards. This bill is a part of that necessary process. As the minister said, we have already done more. The minister has created new rules to better support consumers who are experiencing financial hardship, and has directed the Australian Communications and Media Authority, or ACMA, to make new rules to better support people experiencing domestic, sexual or family violence.

Not very long ago, telecommunications advanced from a landline with a three-metre curly wire that allowed us to take the phone to speak out of earshot of our parents, to mobile and data based technologies. In the eighties, mobile phones were reserved for those on the big screen and for the few who owned yachts and penthouses. I was excited just to own a pager! Somehow, I still have a pager today, thanks to the traditions of the parliament. Now, telecommunications is largely wireless and often satellite based. It has become an integral part of daily existence for people from all walks of life. Telecommunications is a very modern product, but we can call it a staple, like bread. It has become essential to our lives, whether we like it or not.

The government of Australia has to stand up in this field, as in so many others, for the people who use these products. They have to be safeguarded from anyone who is more concerned not with the quality of their product but with how astonishingly rich they can get by selling it. Quality products should be fit for purpose. They should be what their producers say they are and do what the producers say they do. They should do no harm nor create difficulties. Good products are reliable and trustworthy, like good people. When Australians access broadband and voice services, they should do so with confidence, not with a sense of trepidation or any kind of anxiety as to whether their Zoom meeting will work, whether their email will be received, whether their data is safe, or whether the plan that they have paid for will deliver the product that they want without indefinite buffering.

I'm always amused by the casual way people use the term 'consumer-friendly', as if it's an optional extra, a pleasant change from the normal. If a product is not consumer-friendly it's poorly designed, poorly produced or poorly delivered. Broadband and voice services are already necessities of life for most people—try doing business, banking or even accessing government services without them. Just try living your life now without them. Recently, my office in Hasluck had a call from someone who did not have a computer and did not have a mobile phone. She rang on her landline. We were able to help her by nudging the bank—and I won't name names—which perhaps assumes everyone has such devices and that everyone is comfortable operating them.

I give a shout-out to the Good Things Foundation, who literally do good things, firstly by pointing out that one in four Australians are digitally excluded and, secondly, by working to end their exclusion. The Albanese Labor government wants to ensure that there are more things that can be done by another excellent group—ACMA, the Australian Communications and Media Authority. ACMA is a regulatory body. There are people who dislike regulatory bodies intensely and complain bitterly about red tape, and I think we can all understand that there are regulations that can be better streamlined and simplified. It's part of the work of every government to fix this. But there are also regulations vital to safeguarding us all. If those regulations aren't enforced, we are not safe. We need to ensure that ACMA is an empowered and effective regulator in our world of new and advanced technology.

One of the things that this bill proposes is bringing private networks, for example, into new developments like retirement villages. People in those developments will be enabled to access broadband and voice at appropriate standards and to help and learn from each other. The bill will also provide a mechanism for compensation to be paid to consumers—or customers, if you like—when a product doesn't meet a standard or a rule. We like to think of this as encouraging a few certain providers to lift their game. Lifting of the game is also needed when products are not provided in a timely manner. We can wait a certain amount of time for a new car and any number of other products, but, if someone moves into a new building and a network has been installed, the telecommunications must come with it—not in the provider's own sweet time but in a way that is timely and appropriate for their purchasers.

Customers, or consumers, are expected to pay their bills in a timely manner, and you've no right to get away with breaches of laws and obligations under codes just because you're big, rich and powerful. The changes proposed in this bill will enable ACMA to take direct and immediate enforcement action against telecommunications providers that have breached their obligations to customers under industry codes. Like wage theft—something the Albanese government has taken strong action about—taking people's money and then failing to provide a service is not okay; it's wrong. At the moment, offending telcos are handed what amounts to a get-out-of-jail-free card. However serious the offence, ACMA has to firstly tell them that they're doing the wrong thing and that they really should stop doing it. ACMA can only take further action if the telco ignores the notification and goes on offending. No matter how much harm this offence causes, no matter what distress it creates, they can go on doing it until round 2.

Under the changes that the bill proposes, ACMA can immediately take quick and appropriate action to stop harm being done to consumers and hold offenders to account. In the past, that still wouldn't stop those offenders who are rich enough from shrugging their shoulders—no more. The bill will increase the maximum general penalty for breaches of industry codes and standards under the Telecommunications Act 1997 from $250,000 to approximately $10 million, and that's not a slap on the wrist. When you want to enhance consumer safeguards—and I mean really enhance them, not just talk about it—you have to be determined, wilful and watchful; they may be wilful too. The bill will allow penalties for codes, standards and determinations to be based on the value of the benefit obtained from the offending conduct or the turnover of the relevant provider. In other words, we'll be looking at stopping people from deciding that the profits are so great that it's worth continuing to offend. Therefore, penalties greater than $10 million can also be applied in certain circumstances. Our belief is that just knowing that will act as a deterrent. No sector of the economy—whether it's in the areas of energy, banking or telecommunications—should be able to shrug its shoulders where compliance is concerned.

These powers won't be wasted on ACMA. ACMA already has a great record of enforcement actions against companies that violate industry standards and regulations. ACMA fined Optus $12 million for failing to route emergency calls through alternative networks and for not conducting welfare checks on affected customers in the 2023 outage. ACMA fined Telstra $3 million for breaching emergency call handling protocols in 2024, and, in early 2022, ACMA issued a record $2½ million penalty to Sportsbet for breaches of the Spam Act 2003. In May 2024, ACMA filed proceedings against Optus in the Federal Court, alleging a significant data breach in 2022. Notwithstanding the forward-leaning approach by ACMA and the dedicated staff that work there, that organisation needs a government willing to act to ensure that it is able to take even greater action to protect consumers. The Albanese government is that government.

When I attend citizenship ceremonies welcoming new Australian citizens—which I had the pleasure of doing just recently with you, Deputy Speaker Goodenough—I talk about the essence of Australia as a nation, I talk about how everyone should be respected and valued, and I speak about our shared commitment to the rule of law. Further, I'm proud that Australia is a foundation member of the United Nations, having played an important role in creating its founding documents. This included a commitment to the rule of law, a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions and entities—public and private, including the state itself—are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated and that are consistent with international human rights and standards. That's a big ask, but it's a principle worth defending and applying.

This bill will require telecommunications providers operating in the market, especially telecommunications retailers, to be properly registered, through the establishment of a carrier-service-provider registration scheme. This will help to ensure that when a carrier service provider has been found to pose an unacceptable risk to consumers, or is considered to have already caused significant consumer harm, it can be detected and stopped. ACMA will have the tools and powers it needs to protect consumers and hold providers to account. Providers should provide what they say they will provide and do so honourably, honestly and at a fair price. We want to protect the honest and the honourable. Rogue operators harm them too; they harm their reputations by association and thus their competitiveness. The honest and the honourable educate themselves about their obligations to consumers and they abide by those obligations. They won't have to put up with poor behaviour giving the industry a bad name. We hope that this bill will not only reward but increase the numbers of the honest and the honourable. That benefits us all, not only those in the telecommunications sector. Every time we want to make an aspect of Australian life fairer, we advance Australia fair.

The Minister for Communications sure has been hard at work across her portfolio for the last three years. She has been increasing the number of premises with access to NBN fibre upgrades from fewer than 300,000 to more than 4.3 million and is on track to get to five million premises by the end of 2025. The minister has seen an additional 2.7 million higher speed plans taken up—an increase of 80 per cent over the term. The minister has made $480 million upgrades to the NBN fixed wireless and satellite networks, more than doubling the average speeds, with more than 800,000 households and businesses in regional, remote and peri-urban areas benefiting. She has commenced the work on the pathway to minimum download speeds of 100Mbps to bring Australia into line with international best practice. She has ably undertaken work on—and, if re-elected, will legislate—a universal outdoor mobile obligation, meaning that anyone anywhere in Australia will be able to send messages and make voice calls, including emergency calls.

The Albanese government's stated ambition is to make Australia the most connected continent. Minister Rowland has stated that this is not just about infrastructure. It also must come with the long-term interest of consumers, which is about safeguards as well, and this is the mechanism to achieve it. I congratulate the minister for all the extraordinary work she has achieved for our country. I commend the bill to the House.

Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

All Australians need access to fast and reliable connectivity, whether or not it's the NBN. They need access so their sons and daughters can prepare for school assignments or exams. Whether you're a farmer living in the Somerset region or rural Ipswich needing access to the internet for accurate and fast email so that you can deal with your customers, producers and fellow farmers, or whether you're running a business, living and operating in Ipswich, we all need this sort of support.

We also need mobile phones that actually operate and connect with one another. I saw that in the aftermath of Cyclone Alfred, where people lost power and lost the ability to charge their phones. They lost the capacity to communicate with the outside world using their phones.

It's tough in regional and rural areas, and it's tough in the peri-urban fringe where the bush meets the suburbs. These areas have historically been underserviced because of the high cost of deploying infrastructure, difficult terrain, planning challenges and low population densities. Australia's a big place. I represent a large electorate and I know that building that infrastructure is important. But the consumer protection in this legislation is really critical.

This gives me an opportunity to mention the fact that the Albanese Labor government is investing in new mobile phone infrastructure in Ripley, Redbank Plains and Springfield. It's all part of our Peri-Urban Mobile Program, and I congratulate Waveconn, who will be rolling out new mobile phone towers and other infrastructure at sites in Ripley, Central Eden's Crossing, Redbank Plains and Springfield Lakes to boost mobile reception in those locations and surrounds. It's part of a $40.9 million commitment to 47 projects around the country. We know how important it is.

Having the NBN upgrades is critical. I've seen this recently with the Albanese government's upgrades to the NBN's fixed wireless and satellite services at 8,300 premises. People in areas like Toogoolawah, Coominya, Esk, Pine Mountain, Mount Hallen, Mount Tarampa, Haigslea, Wivenhoe Pocket, Hazeldean, Moore and Prenzlau will be able to access broadband speeds of at least 100 megabits per second. The increased speeds will provide smoother streaming, faster downloads and uploads, and stronger connections.

We've also seen some fixed wireless upgrades in my electorate which have delivered increased average end user download speeds for households, from around 40 megabits per second in 2022 to 100 megabits per second today. Using the latest 4G and 5G wireless technology has d about 120,000 premises across the country to access fixed wireless for the first time. I commend the Minister for Communications, Michelle Rowland, in relation to that. That $480 million upgrade complements our nation-building investment to deliver world-class NBN fibre network backed by an additional $3 billion in equity investment.

This legislation before the chamber, the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025, is about putting consumers right at the centre of the telecommunications industry. I saw that as recently as the last couple of months in relation to the problems of mobile coverage when upgrades were being made by Telstra in and around Kilcoy. As I said to Telstra, there were problems including inadequate notification, delays, and lack of communication with businesses, schools, consumers and residents. It's a problem if providers don't communicate well. It's no good just putting an ad in the newspaper; you've got to actually communicate and be on the ground. People who live in places like Somerset deserve as much support, in terms of their telecommunications, and similar access to reliable broadband and mobile phones that work as people in Sydney. Somerset should be treated the same as Sydney.

The legislation we're looking at today is important because we want every Australian to have access to quality and affordable telecommunications services. But we need the legislative backing, the regulatory backing, behind it, and we need a framework that safeguards consumers. We all want to stay connected; we know it's an essential part of everyday life, as I said before; but we understand how critical these telecommunications services are for everyone. Country towns that get cut off during floods and natural disasters need access to these services for daily operations. I've met many people over the years who have told me they go into their offices in Ipswich or Toowoomba or Brisbane but they live in the rural parts of my electorate and also work from home. When those things cannot happen, it makes it very, very difficult.

The Albanese government understands that people face vulnerable circumstances like floods, bushfires and cyclones. We know that people live in our regions. I know the majority of Australians live in capital cities and surrounds, but many Australians live in regional areas as well, and I'm proud to represent a regional and rural seat.

First Nations Australians also live in these areas. In my electorate, about one in 10 people are First Nations. They rely just as much on connectivity to communicate with other people, as, certainly, do multicultural communities. Places in my electorate—like Spring Mountain, Deebing Heights, Ripley Valley, Springfield Central, Springfield Lakes, Redbank Plains and Riverview—have very large multicultural communities. They want to communicate with their families and friends not just around Australia but overseas, so access to good telecommunications is absolutely critical.

Telco services should enrich people's lives. They shouldn't cause inconvenience, frustration and harm. The reality is many people face significant costs, and this includes being able to afford critical communications services like mobile phone and internet services.

The latest data from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman shows that complaints to them rose by 13 per cent from October to December 2024 compared to the previous quarter. There was a 12.8 per cent rise in complaints from small business following four consecutive quarters of decline and a spike in 3G shutdown complaints in October to November 2024. And there continue to be regular high-profile incidents in the telecommunications sector—and even low-profile instances that really frustrate people like those who live in Kilcoy or, indeed, in Toogoolawah, where there've been ongoing issues with connectivity that people like Beryce Nelson and others have contacted me about.

This is why we've been actively reviewing the telecommunications consumer protection framework and making the appropriate changes. The legislation here is about better equipping the regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, or ACMA, with the necessary tools or weapons—if I can put it like that—and powers to protect telco consumers and hold companies to account if they do the wrong thing.

We are implementing some new rules to better support consumers who've experienced financial hardship, prioritising keeping consumers connected and requiring those telecommunications companies to offer specific assistance, such as payment plans. More recently, we've directed ACMA to make rules to better support people who are experiencing domestic, family and sexual violence. It's something that is near and dear to my heart, having worked as a family lawyer for 20 years before I came to this place. We have revised the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code and improved telecommunications for people with disability. We've listened to a whole range of feedback, from consumer advocates to industry, regulators and the TIO.

So, on 12 February this year, the Minister for Communications introduced new legislation to the parliament to make these improvements. The bill gives effect to a number of the significant reforms to boost enforcement powers and penalties. They will enable ACMA to be a better and more effective regulator. The proposed changes mean that ACMA can take direct and immediate enforcement action against telecommunications providers that have breached their obligations to consumers under industry codes, and they remove the current two-step process whereby ACMA must issue a direction to comply to an offending telco, no matter how significant the breach—which is quite a clumsy arrangement. This two-step process will go, effectively, so that action can be taken immediately. It means that ACMA can respond quickly and appropriately to breaches to immediately address consumer harm and hold the telcos to account.

I think one of the most important things here is the raising of the maximum general penalty for breaches of industry codes and standards under the Telecommunications Act 1997. It's going to go up from $250,000 to approximately $10 million—a very significant increase and quite appropriate. Further changes will allow penalties for codes, standards and determinations to be based on the value of the benefit obtained by the offending conduct or the turnover of the relevant provider, allowing for penalties greater than $10 million in certain circumstances. This penalty framework will incentivise community and industry compliance, and it will make sure that there's a better alignment with competition and consumer law around the country.

ACMA is going to get a number of enforcement weapons or tools at its disposal. An additional change will expand and clarify the government's ability to increase the infringement notice penalties that ACMA can issue for applicable breaches, including consumer protection rules. But, at the end of the day, no-one wants an industry that sees penalties as a slap on the wrist. They don't. And I've seen that happen, by the way, in industries like the waste industry around my electorate in Ipswich, where, for so long, I've seen the waste industry pay a penalty or do little when faced with litigation by the Queensland government. Indeed, I've seen so many people in the waste industry fight those cases, but it's almost like it's a price of doing business. I don't single out anyone in particular, but I've seen that happen. We want to make sure that that doesn't happen here. We want to make sure that there's visibility of providers operating in the market. We want to make sure that people know about the establishment of a carrier service provider registration scheme. We want to make sure that the bill equips ACMA with the kinds of tools and powers it needs, and these changes need to be a powerful deterrent. I think they will be. I think getting rid of that two-step process will be.

If you look at the bill and if you look at the legislation and the extra powers that ACMA will have under this bill, it gives ACMA more teeth through more weapons and more tools. I think it incentivises those telcos to educate themselves to make sure they behave, and they've really got to not just communicate with their consumers but fulfill their obligations to those consumers. They need to boost their compliance and improve their functioning, and there needs to be fairness in the sector. There's an incredible imbalance of power between telcos and consumers, so ACMA needs to be that body that brings in some sort of equilibrium to the sector and rebalances that imperfect power arrangement between consumers and telcos.

This bill is another way that the government is putting consumers at the centre of the telco industry. It's going to beef up enforcement and compliance. It's going to establish a carriage service provider registration scheme, increasing the visibility of the carriage service providers, and enable ACMA to stop providers operating in a market who they believe pose an unacceptable risk to consumers or who cause significant harm. It will increase the visibility in the market. No-one wants to get rid of the market, but we want to make sure that the market works better. It will provide improved pathways for ACMA and other government agencies to educate carriage service providers on their regulatory obligations and to streamline complaints and compliance processes. And I think it will create a better situation in terms of the market overall. We do live in a free enterprise economy, and we want to make sure that that market works for everyone fairly and justly. At the moment, it doesn't. Empowering ACMA, under this legislation, to take greater powers and greater tools to rebalance the unequal situation between consumers and telcos is a very important thing, and the legislation is a very worthy piece of legislation that deserves support.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I to rise to speak on the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025. I know that this government is committed to putting the Australian consumer at the heart of the telecommunications industry. We have just heard from the member for Blair how important it is to protect the consumer as our entire lives today depend on our connectivity through our telcos and the different businesses that run telcos. They keep us connected. If you think of the industry and where it was 20 to 25 years ago and where it is today, there is a vast difference. It's completely different. Therefore, we need protection laws to keep up with the rapid changes that are being made with telecommunications.

I remember as a child growing up my father wanting to talk to his mother, who was on the other side of the world. This was in the early sixties. I can recall him booking a call at the GPO, the general post office, a day before Christmas or a day after Christmas to go up and talk to his mother once a year, if that was possible. Sometimes it was once every two years. When you think of today and you see these mobile phone devices that we have and which carry our entire lives on them, we are connected not just to our local communities but to the entire world. You can see the rapid changes that have been made in the last 20 to 25 years, and it's only going to change even more rapidly. Therefore, we need telecommunication laws to be enhanced continuously to keep up with that pace and to ensure that the consumer is protected. When you think of telecommunications and you go back a number of years to the general post office, then Telstra and then the privatisation of Telstra and the opening up of the market for all sorts of telcos to come in, we started off in a period where you had a landline in your house. Some did and some didn't. If it was an emergency, you would run next door or to the red telephone box and call the emergency number that you needed. Today, it's very different. Our 000 numbers across the nation are connected up to Telstra, for example, which runs this part of the service.

The fact is that our entire workloads, files and everything for all of us in this place and many other industries are on these devices. So you can see how important it is to ensure that we remain connected and that we receive calls, text messages, emails and all the things that we do on these phones. As I said, that is whether it is for someone to just say a quick hello and be connected to another human being once or twice a week or whether it is someone who uses their phone continuously for their business, for their work, for their wellbeing, for their health or for a whole range of things, like upcoming appointments. Our access to telecommunications connects us and keeps us informed in a way that would be almost impossible to even imagine in our grandparents' time and for previous generations of Australians. I gave you an example of my father wanting to make a call overseas and booking that call at the GPO to go and do it. That was in the 1960s. It was once a year at Christmas if he was lucky and got in early enough. You would have to make your booking quite early.

As a consequence, it is incumbent on us in this place to make sure that the telco communications regulations and consumer protection frameworks keep up with the rapidly advancing technology. The reforms proposed in this bill go to the compliance and enforcement regime for consumer safeguards and constitute this comprehensive package of improvements for those arrangements.

Telecommunications should enrich people's lives, and they have. When you think about it, they have from the days that I spoke about, the sixties, to where we are today. But, at the same time, they shouldn't cause inconvenience, frustration or detriment. However, all of us in this place have had constituents who have contacted us to talk about some form of inconvenience through their telcos or telecommunications. They come into our electorate offices on a regular basis. I have seen hundreds of people over the years wanting to know why they were cut off when they had paid their bills and why they couldn't get connectivity when they had actually been paying for their monthly account and a whole range of things.

This is where I have to give praise to ACMA. Many people have been referred to them to resolve their issues and, I have to say, nine out of 10 times they are resolved. They do a great job. I think this bill will enhance their work and make their work much easier for them.

As an example, just last week my office received a call from a very distressed gentleman, who I won't identify out of respect for his privacy. His landline service and account had suddenly been disconnected, and this had occurred without any consultation and obviously without his permission. What made matters worse is that this particular person is vision impaired and, as a consequence, extremely reliant on his landline service. Fortunately, his telecommunication provider is one of the big players—and I'll name them: Telstra—in the communication sector, so my office, like most offices, had a contact to call. We were able to call the government relations section and have the matter resolved.

But, of course, it's not the case with many of the smaller telcos. There are a lot of them out there who are not as easy to get in touch with. You can only get in touch with them via the internet or a robotic system that they have. It is critical that ACMA has the necessary powers to protect consumers and the ability to issue penalties appropriately to send a strong message to those telcos that do the wrong thing. And it's critical for the consumer to be able to contact that telco as well when an issue does arise.

Just last December, Telstra paid a penalty of more than $3 million for failing to comply with emergency call rules during a technical disruption at its 000 emergency call centre. An ACMA investigation found 473 breaches of the rules relating to an incident on 1 March 2024, during which Telstra's 000 call centre was hampered in transferring calls to emergency services for 90 minutes. You can imagine the number of emergency calls that were taking place in those 90 minutes. Some could have been life-threatening—a whole range of things. The investigation found that Telstra initiated a contingency process to transfer calls received during the disruption using a list of backup phone numbers. However, several of the phone numbers on the list were incorrect, resulting in 127 calls not being transferred to emergency services for those 90 minutes. It was a fairly serious issues, when you think about it now.

Telstra managed those calls by providing callers' details to the relevant emergency service organisations via emails and phone calls. While Telstra, at the end, successfully managed to transfer the remaining 346 calls using the backup phone list, they could not provide the callers' digital location information to the emergency service organisations due to that particular disruption. ACMA noted that Telstra has historically had a strong record on complaints in its role as the national 000 operator and made considerable efforts to keep the public informed during this outage and subsequently updated its backup phone number list and appointed an independent consultant to conduct the incident review.

This just goes to show how important the role of regulating the telecommunication industry sector is. It can literally be a matter of life or death. Indeed, staying connected is an essential part of everyday life, especially in our remote communities and regional areas. This bill wants to ensure that Australians are protected, have access to reliable high-quality and affordable telco services and are supported by good, strong regulatory consumer safeguards, such as ACMA. We want to ensure the telco industry is working for all Australians, whether you're in the regions, remote areas, regional areas, country areas or in the cities' outer suburbs or inner suburbs. We need the best safeguards in place to protect people's telco interests, and there is a strong, clear recourse if telcos do the wrong thing.

Many Australians are experiencing significant cost-of-living pressures, and this includes being able to afford critical communications. As I said, it's no longer just that landline; it is a critical connection to everything from work to education to health—your entire life on this device. But the latest data from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, the TIO, shows that complaints progressed to the TIO—and many of us in this place have used the TIO or referred people to the TIO, and again I want to pay credit to the TIO for the incredible that they do—were up 13 per cent between October and December 2024 compared to the previous quarter. It increased by 13 per cent in the last 2024 quarter. There was also a 12.8 per cent rise in small-business complaints. Think of the small businesses and how reliant they are on connectivity for their income. They are absolutely reliant, so that 12.8 per cent rise for small businesses is a worrying trend as well. That's following four consecutive quarters of decline and a spike in the 3G shutdown complaints in October and November.

There have been regular high-profile incidents, and we've read about them in the newspapers. We've seen them, including service outages such as the one I mentioned earlier and claims of irresponsible selling practices. This is an area that I've been going on about for a long time. We need to come down on irresponsible selling practices. Some examples are where different telcos—mainly the smaller ones—have salespeople going door-to-door, knocking on people's doors, asking that if they wish to swap from one service to another. One of the most outrageous once I've seen was during the NBN, when the rollout was taking place in metropolitan Adelaide. The member for Sturt is here as well and would remember that period throughout our suburbs where this rollout was taking place. At the same time, there were different notifications being put out to different residences. One of the smaller telcos picked up on this and went doorknocking in the area, claiming that they were from the NBN and that a particular service will be better enhanced by the NBN.

I just happened to be home when one of them knocked on my door. I'd picked up on this and had heard from constituents that this was taking place. When I pressed and asked further questions, it was revealed that they weren't from the NBN; they were from a smaller telco and were actually going door to door. Many people get caught up in these schemes and in these particular scams—I don't want to call them scams, but I suppose they are if you don't know what you're signing up for and they haven't explained it to you. Many people have contacted our office when they've been with one of the providers only to find that the bill the next month or the next quarter is coming from someone completely different. When they come into the office, wanting to know what it was or why they are getting this bill from someone they are unaware of, we sit down, go through it and discover that at some point they signed a form saying, yes, the wanted to be with this provider. Then they explain to me that it wasn't properly explained to them so they could have a period of time to think it through. We need to crack down on those irresponsible selling practices. The reality is that most of the victims are elderly people and people with intellectual disabilities. We've seen plenty of them in my electorate office over the years. It should be wiped out. ACMA and the TIO should be given all the powers possible to ensure that it is wiped out and that these smaller—or any—telcos that are taking part in irresponsible selling practices have the book thrown at them.

The reforms proposed in this bill go to the compliance and enforcement regime for consumer safeguards that constitute this comprehensive package of improved arrangements. This is about equipping the watchdogs with the powers that they require. More importantly, we need to do our job and inform the consumers about what rights they have when it comes to signing up with new telcos or when things do go wrong and they cannot find a way through it. We need this bill, and that's what this bill is doing.

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Telecommunications really is fundamental to modern Australia. More than 99 per cent of Australian adults own a mobile phone; 93 per cent own a smartphone. Over a third of Australians worked from home regularly, according to the most recent ABS survey—which, in passing, does make you wonder what would happen if the Leader of the Opposition were ever to become Prime Minister and ban public servants from working from home. Suddenly public servants in the regions, with disabilities or with caring responsibilities would find themselves out of a job.

Digital health is mainstream. Over nine in 10 Australians have a My Health Record, and telehealth accounted for more than 25 million services. Online education is widespread, and we saw this particularly through the pandemic. Telecommunications are the way in which people access emergency services, with the 000 service receiving over eight million calls a year. Small business relies heavily on quality telecommunications. Over seven out of 10 Australian small businesses use mobile broadband.

So it is really pleasing, in that context, that we have a Minister for Communications who is so attuned to the importance of modernising our structures and systems so that they serve a digital economy. We saw today the communications minister announce a new memorandum of understanding between the eSafety Commissioner—currently the terrific Julie Inman Grant—and the Australian Federal Police to combat child sexual exploitation online. The communications minister has announced additional funding to keep communities and emergency services better connected in times of disaster by extending wi-fi services for evacuation centres. The communications minister has announced that a re-elected Albanese government would work to build on the network of low-Earth-orbit satellites to provide mobile coverage in emergency situations. We saw during Tropical Cyclone Alfred the outages in the mobile network that were caused. Low-Earth-orbit satellites provide much better coverage than additional base stations can do. And we've seen the Minister for Communications working on the issue of scams, alongside the Assistant Treasurer, the member for Whitlam, who, alas, will be leaving parliament this election. His work on scams, in conjunction with the communications minister, has been quite remarkable.

The communications minister has also been focused on delivering better broadband across Australia. The National Broadband Network was a Labor initiative announced by the Rudd government, but the ball was dropped by the incoming coalition government, who took Australians back to a copper rollout. That copper rollout has meant worse services for millions of Australians. We've now announced that we're finishing the job. The communications minister and the finance minister provided an additional equity injection, up to $3 billion, to NBN Co, which will ensure that NBN Co has the resources it needs in order to finish the rollout. This sits alongside Labor's legislation to ensure the NBN stays in public hands—legislation that the coalition voted against. Not only would they cut services if they were to win office; they could well privatise the National Broadband Network, a measure which would be disastrous for competition.

It's the competition lens with which I come to this bill today, the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025, as the Assistant Minister for Competition. We do so often see in the competition space that it's monopolies that tend to treat their consumers badly. If you're fighting for market share in a highly competitive sector then you're more likely to be thinking about how you can best serve consumers. But if you've got consumers locked up then there is more of a risk that monopolies will abuse their monopoly power to take advantage of consumers.

We've seen an uptick in complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman. The latest data from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman shows that complaints progressed to the TIO increased 13 per cent between October and December 2024 compared with the previous quarter. There was also a 12.8 per cent rise in small-business complaints following four consecutive quarters of decline and a spike in 3G shutdown complaints. All of that is for the last quarter of last year, the most recent quarter for which we have Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman data.

There have been a range of high-profile incidents in the telco sector—the Optus data breach, significant service outages and claims of irresponsible selling practices, which the previous member referred to. In that context, it is vital that we update the consumer protections that are provided by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, ACMA, in order to boost its enforcement powers and penalties. Part of this is about removing the two-step process. If you're doing a barn dance, a two-step is a terrific thing! If you're making a complaint to the telecommunications ombudsman, it is not quite so terrific. What this two-step process currently requires is for the ACMA to issue a direction to comply to offending telcos. It has to do that, no matter how significant the breach. Then—and only if noncompliance continues—can it take further action. This bill, once passed by the parliament, will allow for the ACMA to take quick and appropriate action in response to breaches to immediately address consumer harm and hold telcos to account.

We've also increased the penalties. This has been an important priority of this government to ensure that penalties are commensurate with the problem they're seeking to address and that they are not simply treated as a cost of doing business. In the competition space, one of our first reforms in late 2022 after winning office was to increase the penalties for anticompetitive conduct. We did this because we looked around the world and saw that comparative nations had comparatively larger penalties. We increased those penalties for anticompetitive conduct. We've also increased the penalties on supermarkets who do the wrong thing by suppliers under the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct. The food and grocery code, set up by the Liberals and Nationals as a toothless, voluntary code was empowered by Labor. Labor's mandatory supermarket code carries multimillion dollar penalties. Extraordinarily, when the legislation came to the parliament, the Liberals and Nationals voted with the supermarkets. They voted for negligible penalties against Labor's tougher law.

This bill also increases penalties, increasing the maximum general penalty for breaches of industry codes and standards under the Telecommunications Act from $250,000 to approximately $10 million. Further changes will allow penalties for codes, standards and determinations to be based on the value of the benefit obtained from the offending conduct or the turnover of the relevant provider, allowing for penalties greater than $10 million in certain circumstances. That's exactly the approach that we've taken within competition law. Our increase in penalties ensured that the size of the offending conduct—the ill-gotten gains, if you like—could be taken into account when considering the appropriate penalty, as could the size of the entity. That's why for supermarkets, worth billions of dollars, the penalties can be in the millions of dollars. That is appropriate for the most egregious conduct. We hope that those penalties will never have to be used, and the experience in many other areas is a positive one. When the penalty is commensurate with the offence, then you see firms improving their action. You incentivise better firm behaviour. You don't need to deploy those penalties.

The penalties framework under this bill will be aligned with those in other relevant sectors like energy and banking and the penalties under the Australian consumer law. There will also be an additional change to expand and clarify the government's ability to issue the infringement notice penalty the ACMA can issue for all applicable breaches, including for consumer protection rules—another tool in the armoury of the ACMA to be able to stand up on behalf of consumers.

The bill will increase the visibility of providers operating in the market, particularly telecommunications retailers, through the establishment of a carrier service provider registration scheme and allow for more effective regulation of carriers. Where a carrier has been found to pose an unacceptable risk to consumers or to have caused significant consumer harm, the Australian Communications and Media Authority is able to block them from operating. Of course, that would only be applied in the most extreme cases, but it is critical that that powerful deterrent is in the hands of the regulator. This is critical for ensuring that Australians are looked after in their dealings online, which are, as I said at the outset, an increasingly large part of our lives.

This government too has put in place a world-first minimum age for accessing social media. That is a reform which is being watched closely around the world. International researchers such as Jonathan Haidt and Jean Twenge have praised the Australian approach. It recognises that kids should be allowed to be kids, to go out and kick a footy, play with their mates, play a board game and engage with friends, and that, increasingly, digital devices are robbing them of the childhood that previous generations enjoyed. The highly addictive nature of social media makes these rules appropriate, with, of course, a carve-out for activities such as mental health support services, education or science. The focus here is on the highly addictive, slot-machine-like social media sites.

That consumer safeguard applies to those who are under 16. In effect, United States law—section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996—set 13 years old as the age for accessing social media. In Australia, we believe the rule ought to be 16, and I would be surprised if, over the coming years, other countries didn't move to that similar standard.

This consumer protection focus is a core part of what the Albanese government have done within the telecommunications sector, but alongside that we are a government that is strongly pro research and innovation. We recognise the value of telecommunications innovation in serving Australians. We've strongly supported the 5G rollout and the movement towards more advanced devices. We want Australians to get the very best of artificial intelligence and of the improvements in telecommunications technologies. We understand that, used well, these are tools for cyberconnecting, as Nick Terrell and I put it in a book called Reconnected a couple of years ago. By cyberconnecting, we can build stronger in-person communities and use the technologies to empower face-to-face engagement, not to supplant it.

Labor understands the importance of a competition and consumer focused approach. You saw that at this very dispatch box two days ago, as the Treasurer brought down a budget which had competition as one of the core drivers of productivity. Productivity growth languished under the former government, and one of the ways in which we seek to turn that around is through competition and consumer reforms like this one before the House.

Labor's competition and consumer agenda is an ambitious one. We make no apologies for that. We established the competition taskforce within Treasury, which has spearheaded the biggest reform of our merger laws in 50 years and a revamp of national competition policy, curtailing the abuse of non-compete clauses. There's work to deal with the problems that the supermarket duopoly can cause for both shoppers and suppliers. Labor's supermarket reforms are about ensuring a fairer deal for farmers and a fairer deal for families. This bill before the House is about ensuring a better deal for telecommunications customers. Everything this government does is focused on the best interests of Australians, and I commend the bill to the House.

Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Now more than ever, people are becoming more reliant on their mobile devices. We use all of our mobile devices for more than just calls and messages. In the palms of our hands, we can pay for goods and services, transfer funds, send work e-mails, manage social media, access real-time news and even, for the more tech savvy among us,    control our home appliances and cars. We have come a long way with these compact and incredibly useful devices that connect us not just to each other but to an online world of services and information. Many people and businesses around Australia are highly dependent on their telecommunications providers to stay connected to their loved ones, to their communities and to their clients. We want to ensure that all Australians have access to reliable, high-quality and affordable telecommunications services, supported by a strong regulatory and consumer safeguards framework.

As mobile technology becomes further integrated into our daily lives, any disruption to service can be frustrating and inconvenient, but in some cases it can result in a loss of business or not being able to provide essential community services or reach out to loved ones in need. We have seen regular high-profile incidents in the telco sector, including significant service outages like the 2023 Optus outage, which impacted the nationwide network, and claims of irresponsible selling practices. This only highlights the need to address these issues within the telecommunications industry and prevent this happening in the future.

The Minister for Communications has worked hard to ensure that all Australians, regardless of the circumstance, are able to receive reliable telco services. This includes the development and implementation of the Telecommunications Financial Hardship Industry Standard, which came into effect on 29 March 2024. This standard makes it mandatory for telco providers to better support customers who are struggling to pay their phone and internet bills. This also means that telco providers have to do all that they can to keep customers connected if they are experiencing financial hardship, with disconnection as the last resort.

On 8 October 2024, the minister directed ACMA to develop a new industry standard to ensure telcos better support customers experiencing domestic, family and sexual violence. Telecommunications services play a crucial role in providing a safe, secure and reliable means for victims-survivors to navigate their way out of violent situations. These services are essential for maintaining connections with supportive figures such as family members, friends and vital social networks. These are often a lifeline for victims-survivors, providing emotional support, encouragement and practical help during times of crisis. For many, the ability to communicate safely with people that they trust can make a significant difference in their ability to leave an abusive environment and begin the healing process. These services must ensure confidentiality and accessibility, enabling individuals to discreetly access vital information and resources without fear of interception or retaliation.

The Albanese Labor government understands how important telecommunications services are to all Australians, especially to the many who provide services to the community, to businesses, to those in rural and remote communities and to the most vulnerable in our society. Our government is committed to putting customers at the centre of the telecommunications industry.

The Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025 is a significant step towards achieving this commitment. The bill aims to amend the Telecommunications Act 1997 to establish a carrier service provider registration scheme, make industry codes directly enforceable by ACMA and amend existing arrangements relating to the application of penalty amounts for infringement notices and civil penalties. These amendments are designed to enhance consumer protections and ensure that telecommunications providers are held to the highest standards of service and accountability. The minister has reviewed the telecommunications consumer protection framework and has consulted with many stakeholders to make these changes.

The establishment of a carriage service provider registration scheme will create a more transparent and more accountable framework for telecommunications providers. This scheme will require providers to register with ACMA, ensuring that only those who meet specific criteria can offer services to Australian consumers. This will help to weed out the dodgy operators that pose significant risks or have caused consumer harm by continuing their questionable operations and ensure that Australian consumers are dealing with reputable providers.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor 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 and the member will be granted leave to continue speaking when the debate is resumed.