Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this morning as the shadow minister for regional communications to speak on this bill. The Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025 primarily seeks to amend the Telecommunications Act 1997 to establish a mandatory carriage service provider registration scheme, make industry codes directly enforceable, increase maximum civil penalties and allow the Minister for Communications to increase infringement notice penalties. The bill complements other telecommunications legislation by strengthening consumer protections, providing the Australian Communications and Media Authority, ACMA, with greater enforcement powers and aligning with the broader goal of a consumer-centric telecommunications sector.

The coalition supports this bill, which is a step in the right direction when it comes to enhancing consumer protections in telecommunications. However, this bill is not a comprehensive review of consumer protections in the telecommunications sector, something which the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee, RTIRC, called for in their December 2024 report, which the government has failed to respond to. There is a legislative requirement to respond to this report within six months. They are three months overdue so far. There are 14 recommendations, and we are yet to hear a peep from the minister. The coalition's form in government on responding to RTIRC reports within the legislative timeframe was far stronger than Labor's, and I hope the government's response to the RTIRC report is not waiting until the universal outdoor mobile obligation, or UOMO, legislation passes the parliament. UOMO is by no means a comprehensive solution to shortcomings in regional telecommunications.

I moved on Monday that the Albanese government be held to account for failing to meet a legislated deadline to table its response to a key regional telecommunications report. This is yet another example of Labor's lack of focus on regional Australia and another demonstration of their ongoing lack of transparency. Regional people deserve better. While Australians wait for the government's late response to the Regional Telecommunications Review, they also want answers from Labor about when the UOMO legislation will be introduced.

Let me take a moment to paint a brief picture of the experience of regional Australians when it comes to telecommunications. On that front, I can tell you that metropolitan Australians and regional Australians are not in the same boat. Just yesterday, I met with Rhys Turton, a proud farmer and Chair of GrainGrowers. He lives in York in the Western Australian wheatbelt. Rhys lives 17 kilometres from a Telstra tower and says that, while the mobile phone network is workable from Monday to Friday, come the weekend, he has to drive up the hill and stay in his ute. When 5,000 people drive out of Perth, he can't make a call or send a text, even with boosters.

Rhys went on to tell me that data and connectivity are a big part of his agricultural business and, when they fail, the impact on productivity is huge. He says: 'If we have a vehicle breakdown, I go to the web and pull up a parts manual after driving to the top of the hill. If I call the service guy and the guy says he will ring me back, do I wait on the top of the hill to take his call?' How can people like Rhys be expected to run a productive business, one that drives our economy, while sitting around on the top of a hill waiting for a phone call? He also says: 'I am sick of spending money for a service that isn't a proper service. I feel my argument is so basic. I had better reception on CDMA.'

It is ridiculous that regional Australians put up with such poor connectivity. Rhys's story illustrates the challenges country people face—Australians who technically do have coverage of some sort under our existing terrestrial mobile network. Regional Australians become digital lifehackers, experts in messing around to use the limited service that is available. But as soon as congestion builds up, service goes out the window. The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, TIO, received 51,854 complaints from consumers living in regional, rural and remote Australia between 2021 and 2024. Regional Australians are indeed getting a raw deal. I don't need the TIO to tell me this. I know it to be true based on my own experience and the experience of constituents across Mallee.

Constituent complaints range from system faults to poor service quality, poor mobile service coverage, outages and accessibility barriers. The TIO's report highlights that faults and service problems often take longer to resolve in the regions and that, often, mobile service coverage is poor or non-existent. For example, the ombudsman referred to cases where 'a regional customer may report faults over several years without any lasting improvements to their services'. I'd like to know how many people in metropolitan Melbourne or Sydney would tolerate that. Additionally, the TIO heard from consumers who signed up to a mobile service after being told that their mobile would work in their area, but, when returning home to a remote location, found they had no service. Regarding satellite services, the TIO's complaint data shows that regional consumers continue to experience unreliable connections and service quality problems.

I have to highlight that, during a cost-of-living crisis, regional Australians pay the same price on their mobile phone plans as people in the inner cities who get far higher download speeds and service reliability. Returning to Rhys's experience, which I mentioned earlier, the RTIRC report talks to his exact issue, stating:

…existing mobile networks in many regional areas are under pressure and facing congestion and capacity issues that require urgent attention—

Urgent attention, I say to the government—

to ensure reliable service.

RTIRC reports that many people living in regional, rural and remote Australia remain dissatisfied with their mobile experience, citing issues such as unreliability, frequent call dropouts and slow data speeds. The committee reports:

In many regional centres, the existing infrastructure struggles to cope with demand, particularly during peak usage periods or times of crisis.

RTIRC suggests that 'attention must turn to improving the quality of services in areas with existing terrestrial mobile coverage'.

This is important in the context of technology that is changing at a considerable pace, where low-Earth-orbit, LEO, satellite technology presents new opportunities for access to voice-capable broadband connectivity within fixed premises in the bush. It also presents opportunities to expand basic mobile phone connectivity in areas where there is currently none and in places where expanding the terrestrial network is simply not feasible. We cannot put mobile towers every 14 kilometres. It's just not going to work. The expense is enormous. For those who don't know, it's around a million dollars per tower. We must invest in up-to-date technology.

We need to be realistic about the technology advances, what they look like and the timeframes involved; be aware of what industry is doing or likely to continue to do off their own bat because it makes commercial sense; and listen to the experience and needs of consumers in the regions, who are often most aware of what really makes a difference on the ground.

When it comes to the experience of telecommunications for regional Australians on the ground, the 3G network shutdown is a prime example of the failings of the Albanese Labor government. The 3G network shutdown in Australia, completed by major telcos in 2024, aimed to repurpose spectrum for enhanced 4G and 5G services. However, the Albanese government's management of the shutdown of the 3G network was a complete mess. I called time and again for the former minister to prevent the foreseeable calamity of a rushed 3G shutdown, and the Albanese government was very slow to act. Even then, the 3G shutdown was marred by significant failings, widespread disruptions, a surge in complaints and ongoing service losses for some consumers, particularly in the regions.

Despite promises of equivalent or improved coverage, 4G or 5G signals do not reach as far as 3G in some terrains, creating new black spots. This was particularly acute in rural areas with fortuitous 3G coverage—that is, unofficial signals beyond the mapped areas, which telcos did not commit to replicating. In regional or remote areas, consumers report 4G is unreliable or absent where 3G actually worked, resulting in phones dropping to SOS mode or having no signal at all, requiring them to drive up hills or climb towers for reception, as Rhys has to do. And I have to say I experience this on many of my Mallee roads. I have conversations going on the telephone while I'm driving, they drop out and they have to be called again and again.

Thousands of consumers have been left with worse or no coverage at all, particularly in rural and remote areas. Farmers' agtech equipment has been rendered useless. There is no coverage on their properties to call triple 0 if there is an accident or emergency. People with life-saving health devices are having to charge them constantly because the device is searching for a signal that isn't coming, rendering the device useless because it isn't on them while it's on the charger. At their own cost, because of this government's failures, people are installing Starlink satellites for their homes and properties because the lack of access is quite literally threatening lives and livelihoods.

There have also been reports of poor handling of consumer complaints about their loss of service post the 3G shutdown. It isn't good enough, and the Albanese government should be ashamed of their lack of response to help the people impacted.

I hope I have done justice to the bleak nature of the regional telecommunications experience for consumers so far this morning. I would now like to draw the House's attention back to the consumer protections in regional telecommunications and refer again to the report of the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee.

Recommendation 4 of this report is about consumer protection and service standards. Key findings of RTIRC's report regarding consumer protection and service standards include:

The regulatory and consumer protection framework for telecommunications is extremely complex—

due to multiple pieces of legislation, contractual requirements and industry codes. Other findings are:

Consumers' expectations of consumer protections and telco providers' service standards are not being met.

People in rural and remote areas experience faults and outages more frequently, and repair times are often extended compared to urban areas.

RTIRC also discuss the need to modernise consumer protections to ensure relevance to changes in technology and models of service delivery and the need for a consolidated and streamlined framework of consumer protection to reduce duplication, streamline compliance and enforcement and improve effectiveness. The RTIRC report calls for a full overhaul of telecommunications consumer protection and service standard frameworks, suggesting the modernisation of the universal service obligation as a sensible time to do this.

As the shadow minister for regional communications, I highlight that the Nationals are championing regional connectivity. As our highest priority, the Nationals are committed to working with consumers and the telecommunications sector to design an updated universal service obligation that ensures that regional Australians have the connectivity required to enable economic participation and maximise productivity gains and have access to high-quality educational content and virtual health care and meaningful social connection. I call on this government to lift their game.

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