Speech - Address at Parliament House

The Albanese government is committed to putting Australian consumers at the heart of the telecommunications industry.

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.

That is why this government has been actively reviewing the telecommunications consumer protection framework and making appropriate changes. 

This includes implementing new rules to better support consumers who are experiencing financial hardship and, more recently, directing the Australian Communications and Media Authority, or ACMA, to make new rules to support people who are experiencing domestic, sexual and family violence.

The Albanese government understands how critical telco services are for everyone, including those facing vulnerable circumstances, people living in our regions, First Nations Australians and those who rely upon connectivity to support their families and provide services to their communities.

Accordingly, we want to ensure that the telco industry is working for Australians, that they have the best consumer safeguards in place to protect their interests, and that there is a strong, clear recourse if telcos do the wrong thing.

Nobody wants an industry that sees penalties as the 'cost of doing business'.

We've listened to wideranging feedback from industry, regulators, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman and consumer advocates to develop these reforms.

The Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill will improve compliance and enforcement of telecommunications consumer safeguards and constitute a comprehensive package of reforms to those arrangements. 

They will help to ensure that the ACMA is an empowered and effective regulator and that appropriate incentive structures are in place to drive better behaviour by telcos.

The bill improves compliance and enforcement of consumer safeguards in several important ways. 

Schedule 1 will establish a carriage service provider registration scheme. 

The scheme will increase visibility of carriage service providers and enable the ACMA to stop providers who pose unacceptable risk to consumers or cause significant consumer harm from operating in the market. 

Increased visibility of the market will provide improved pathways for the ACMA (and other government agencies) to educate carriage service providers on their regulatory obligations, streamline complaints and compliance processes and create better overall market accountability. 

Empowering the ACMA to stop providers operating in the market will provide a deterrent for significant noncompliance and increase trust by consumers in registered providers—including new or smaller ones. 

Schedule 2 of the bill will make industry codes directly enforceable. 

This allows the ACMA to take immediate and appropriate action to address consumer harm and will incentivise industry compliance.

Currently, the ACMA cannot take direct enforcement action against breaches of industry codes, no matter how significant, without first issuing a direction to comply, and the ACMA can only take further action if noncompliance continues.

The proposed changes remove this two-step enforcement process so that the ACMA can act quickly and appropriately to address consumer harm arising from code breaches and hold telcos to account.

Schedule 3 will increase the maximum general civil penalty for breaches of industry codes and industry standards from $250,000 to 30,300 penalty units, which is currently $9.9 million. 

This aligns with penalties currently available for breaches of service provider determinations, meaning the penalty amount for these three types of regulatory instruments will be aligned. 

The schedule will also modernise the penalty framework for these instruments to allow penalties based on the value of the benefit obtained from the conduct or the turnover of the relevant telco—allowing for greater penalties in certain circumstances. 

Overall, this penalty framework better aligns with those in other relevant sectors like energy and banking, and under the Australian consumer law.

Schedule 4 of the bill expands and clarifies the authority of the Minister for Communications to increase any infringement notice penalty the ACMA can issue for breaches of telecommunications rules. 

Taken together, the reforms in the bill strengthen consumer protections and enhance compliance and enforcement of telecommunications consumer safeguards, for the benefit of the whole community.

They reflect the Albanese government's commitment to making sure Australians are appropriately protected and supported in their interactions with telecommunications service providers.

Importantly, these reforms have received strong support from stakeholders, including the:

This comprehensive support, from consumer groups, regulators and industry alike, demonstrates the importance of these commonsense reforms and is representative of close engagement with these key stakeholders over the past year in particular.

I thank them for their ongoing engagement and support and acknowledge the important work they do.

Noting this level of strong support for these reforms, and the important outcomes they enable for Australian telco consumers, I encourage all representatives in this place to give it their support as well.

I commend the bill to the House.