Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The government would like to indicate that we are opposing these amendments, and because we are opposing them I think Senator Ludlam deserves an explanation, so I will go through the reasoning behind that position. On the Greens amendment to provide for customer service guarantee performance standards to apply to the matters currently dealt with by the industry self-regulatory Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code made under part 6 of the Telecommunications Act, the government agrees with the Greens that more needs to be done to encourage telephone companies to comply with the existing industry self-regulatory Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code. However, the CSG is not a suitable mechanism to apply to the matters in the Telecommunications Consumer Protection Code. There would be significant difficulties in attempting to apply performance standards or quantitative performance benchmarks to matters such as advertising of products, the fairness of contracts, the intelligibility and accessibility of contract terms, the provision of billing information, credit assessment of customers, financial hardship policies and complaints-handling procedures as proposed by the Greens.

Part 9 of the government’s bill will amend the Telecommunications Act to allow the minister to direct the Australian Telecommunications and Media Authority to determine an industry standard where industry codes do not adequately deal with consumer issues. The power is a more appropriate and broader mechanism than the amendments of the CSG as proposed by the Greens. If the matters in the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code are made an industry standard under part 6 of the Telecommunications Act, providers will be required to comply or face civil penalties. Noncompliance could also be subject to the new ACMA infringement notice scheme. I understand that informal discussions with the Australian Consumers Communications Action Network indicate that ACCAN considers the government’s proposal would satisfactorily meet the concerns of consumers in this matter.

It is expected that the power proposed under part 9 of the bill will be used in instances where the minister considers that an existing industry code fails to adequately address the interests of consumers or where there is an immediate concern that the development of an industry code would result in an unreasonable delay in providing protections for consumers. Some examples of where a standard may be appropriate include that on 1 July 2009 a new industry code came into force relating to mobile premium services. This power may have been utilised to address the issues around mobile phone premium services if industry had not put in place a robust code. Work is currently being undertaken by two separate bodies on consumer protection and customer service issues within the telco industry. The Communications Alliance, an industry peak body, is currently undertaking a review of the Telecommunications Consumer Protection Code and ACMA is currently undertaking an inquiry into customer service and complaints handling. If the current Communications Alliance code review fails to adequately address the interests of consumers and the government were to judge the revised code as deficient in the protections it afforded to consumers in the area of complaint handling, or the ACMA review were to result in recommendations about minimum standards for customer service, the government may direct the ACMA to develop a standard dealing with such issues.

Therefore, while the government absolutely agrees with the sentiments of the amendments proposed by the Greens, the government considers the powers contained in part 9 of the bill are a more appropriate way to deal with concerns about compliance with the existing Telecommunications Consumer Protection Code.