Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move amendment (20) standing in my name:

(20)  Schedule 1, page 83 (after line 8), after item 64, insert:

64A  Section 104

After:

• The ACMA may be directed by the Minister to monitor, and report on, specified matters relating to the performance of carriers and carriage service providers.

insert:

• The ACCC is to monitor, and report each financial year to the Minister on, breaches by Telstra of an undertaking about structural separation.

64B  At the end of Part 5

Add:

105C  Monitoring of breaches by Telstra of an undertaking about structural separation

Monitoring

        (1)    The ACCC must monitor, and report each financial year to the Minister on, breaches by Telstra of an undertaking in force under section 577A.

Report

        (2)    The ACCC must give a report under subsection (1) to the Minister as soon as practicable after the end of the financial year concerned.

        (3)    The Minister must cause a copy of a report under subsection (1) to be tabled in each House of the Parliament within 15 sitting days of that House after receiving the report.

This amendment requires the ACCC to provide an annual report to the minister on the progress of the structural separation undertaking. Again, it is one of providing more transparency in the process. It is in relation to a monitoring of compliance by the ACCC on structural separation undertakings. I commend this amendment to have the ACCC monitor and report each financial year to the minister. It also allows for the ACCC to monitor and report each financial year to the minister on breaches by Telstra of an undertaking about structural separation. Again, it puts a greater onus, I believe, in relation to allowing for a greater degree of transparency. If there is a concern about breaches then the ACCC is to monitor and report each year in the context of the undertakings as to structural separation. I think this is a good thing for consumers, it is a good thing for businesses and it is a good thing for those other wholesalers that Telstra will be providing services to in this transitional period before the final build of the NBN in the context of this legislative framework.