Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move amendments (22) and (23) on sheet 7006:

(22)  Schedule 1, page 181 (after line 20), after Part 4, insert:

Part 4A—Consumer protection

Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999

226A  Paragraph 115(1)(f)

Omit “.”, substitute “; and”.

226B  At the end of subsection 115(1)

Add:

             (g)    the advertising of products and informing customers about the prices, terms and conditions of products on offer; and

             (h)    the fairness of consumer contract terms including having regard to the intelligibility and accessibility of contract terms; and

              (i)    the provision of billing information and billing services to customers; and

              (j)    the credit assessment of customers, the provision of security and credit control tools, and a requirement to have a financial hardship policy to assist customers experiencing financial difficulties; and

             (k)    the complaint handling procedures for information provision to customers and recording of their complaints.

(23)  Schedule 1, page 182 (after line 1), after the heading to Part 5, insert:

Telecommunications Act 1997

227A  At the end of paragraph 105(3)(d)

Add:

          and (iii)    performance standards made, and performance benchmarks set, under Part 6;

The first amendment adds five additional clauses to part 4A section 115 of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards)Act 1999, relating particularly to performance standards. I suspect the government still does not like them but I am going to put the case nonetheless.

Currently ACMA may make performance standards to be complied with by carriage service providers in relation to six different matters, ranging from the time it takes to hook people up to a service to response time to customer complaints and so on. We are seeking to widen the range of matters for which ACMA may develop performance benchmarks which it can then enforce. This will go some way towards winding back the high rates of complaints and customer dissatisfaction which have plagued the industry and which the minister himself has acknowledged on many occasions.

The range of matters that we seek to include cover issues such as standards in advertising, fairness, intelligibility of contracts, provision of billing information and complaint handling procedures. I am aware that the government has concerns that some of these issues are diffuse and it will be difficult to provide accurate metrics against which to judge carriage providers. We believe that ACMA does have the ability and the wit to develop such benchmarks even if they have commonsense and plain English standards to give service providers a better defined idea of what the government expects, or it could simply be metrics along the lines of the number of complaints received during a defined period of time. I hope that we can give ACMA the benefit of the doubt and let them define these benchmarks rather than assuming that it cannot be done.

Amendment (23) simply adds the provisions that we seek to insert here into ACMA’s reporting obligations. I strongly commend these amendments to the chamber.