Alison Penfold (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025 makes changes to the Telecommunications Act to strengthen consumer safeguards, something we should all agree is a top priority. The bill will create a register of carriage service providers, enable the direct enforcement of industry codes, amend the existing two-step process for the application of penalty amounts for infringement notices, and increase the maximum penalty amount for breaches of the codes from $250,000 to $10 million. Full visibility of all telecommunications operators will also ensure ACMA can target compliance and enforcement activities and, where necessary, take appropriate action. The changes in this bill will strengthen ACMA's powers and the speed at which they can use them, to provide even greater protections for consumers and ensure we have responsible operators in our telecommunications sector.

This is an important step towards holding the telcos to account to industry standards, but I think what is missing from this legislation is a consideration of the standards themselves. As they currently stand, the bar is too low. We need to reassess the universal service obligation. The USO is the obligation for Telstra to ensure that standard telephone services are reasonably accessible to all people in Australia on an equitable basis, wherever they reside or carry on business, and to ensure that payphones are reasonably accessible to all people in Australia on an equitable basis, wherever they reside or carry on business. Rather than being maintained or improved, the quality of landline phone infrastructure is noticeably deteriorating, especially in rural areas of the electorate. In times of emergency, the consequence can be life threatening. Not only is Telstra failing in its universal service obligation of providing reasonable standard telephone services via landline phone connection, but it is also failing to provide a reliable and cost-effective alternative. Many people are forced to go to the more expensive Starlink satellite in the hope that it will prove to be reliable. This government must negotiate new terms that better reflect advances in technology. Telstra and, indeed, all providers need to be held to account and made to uphold these new universal service obligations.

This bill does nothing to improve mobile and internet services in my electorate, which has poor to non-existent mobile and internet service—one of the biggest issues, next to roads and health, that is consistently raised with me. Mobile and internet service is becoming increasingly unreliable in many locations across my electorate. Frustratingly, the service is worse now than it was just a few years ago. In rural areas of the electorate, loss of internet and mobile service for extended periods is becoming increasingly common. I'll give you an example. Residents within the town of Marlee have gone weeks and, on one occasion, well over a month without any mobile or landline service. In coastal areas of my electorate that experience a seasonal influx in tourist numbers, like Forster, Tuncurry and Harrington, internet either operates at snail's pace or simply drops out.

I can give you an example from Harrington. A butcher there, only a Christmas ago, could not service any of his customers. His Square just simply could not work, because this small town—I know many of the MPs here, who often holiday in my electorate, would know that the population of Harrington can triple in a holiday season, but the bandwidth can't cope with the additional people and the 30 per cent natural increase in the use of data. Businesses in this town of Harrington—it's the busy time; it's when they're planning to hopefully make a bit of cash—simply cannot run their business unless people have cash in their wallet. This is a huge issue for small businesses in towns like Harrington and many of my other coastal communities. It's simply not good enough in a society that's increasingly forced to become reliant on technology. People in Nabiac struggle to access their online prescriptions. Pensioners are unable to access their myGov account. Hotels and restaurants are unable to take bookings online. People are unable to make medical appointments or receive reminders. They're unable to contact family and friends, and they're unable to contact emergency services in times of dire need. I've got a number of communities that are a single road in and a single road out—places like Pindimar and Bundabah and places like Pacific Palms that are surrounded by forest, and there is no escape. Having an internet or phone service that actually works when you need it is critical to them surviving in those difficult circumstances.

I want to use an example from the Gloucester District News of the Area of a town called Barrington on the Thunderbolts Way on the other side of Gloucester. I'll just read the first bit because I want to put this on the record:

LOCAL resident Shelley Faull has described the Telstra mobile phone service to the village of Barrington and its surrounds as being "woeful".

According to Telstra's Network Coverage Map the whole village of Barrington is covered by its mobile service, and there is nothing to indicate that Barrington residents are likely to experience issues using their mobile phones.

According to locals and visitors however, the map does not match their lived experience.

"I have to stand on my verandah to get any mobile connection, and then I have calls that keep dropping out …

…   …   …

"The hall is an emergency refuge centre if there is a fire, flood or other disaster, and there is no mobile coverage at the hall.

This is the lived experience of people in my electorate and the lived experience of people in regional Australia. We have to take these needs seriously.

Recently, a gentleman—his name is Todd Barnes from Pappinbarra—who'd returned from South Africa emailed me and told me his story. He said:

From Johannesburg we drove 650km south-west to the north cape province and not once did I not have phone service…I had the same service as the local guys. I could call, send pictures and videos in the middle of a paddock in the middle of nowhere … [At home] I can't even drive from Port Macquarie to Taree without the phone service dropping out multiple times.

That's on the Pacific Highway, our national highway. He went on to say:

Not good when Australia is supposed to be a first world country … The local African guys can't believe we can't drive between towns on a highway and not have mobile service. They thought I was pulling their chains.

Again, are we being left behind in the regions? Why are we being left behind in the regions? I understand that geography plays a part, and I understand the geography in my electorate, but, surely, a modern Australia that cares about the regions can find a way to ensure that all Australians have access to mobile and internet services.

I want to talk now about the poor assistance that many of my constituents have when they try to deal with telcos. I just want to remind the House that the Lyne electorate is in fact the oldest electorate of all here, so my constituents are particularly challenged by technology. Many of them have not grown up with it. They've come to have to use a mobile phone as much older people. Indeed, I know it is my own experience. I'm going to say that the first time I ever used email was when working in the minister for industrial relations's office in 1996. I remember the computer lab going in at school. I'm 54, and even I find the challenge sometimes difficult. I, myself, have come to it later in life, but I appreciate that, for much older Australians, it's more difficult.

Constituents also report a very poor customer service experience when reporting issues to the telcos' call centres. They are firstly met with an extremely long wait time for either in-store visits or calls to the call centre, and then they are faced with a person on the other end having no understanding, appreciation or empathy for the situation or for the client. My constituents have informed me of numerous instances where a maintenance person scheduled to attend their property to fix the issue cancelled at the last minute. No-shows are a common experience, as are technicians failing to first confirm with the business or household that the scheduled time is acceptable. Better training is certainly required. I have to say I have raised this directly with the telcos. I have spoken even with the stores in my own electorate and the staff there to raise the issues of ensuring that the staff are trained, first of all, to be responsive and communicate and also to make sure that they understand who they're talking to and really try to help them. I do give credit to successive governments, also, for investing in the regional tech hub because that has also been a great source of support for many people in regional Australia, particularly farmers and older Australians, to go and get one-on-one support try—as I often say—to unscramble the bureaucracy and technology to try and make it work for them.

Moving on to fee-for-no-service, there are also numerous examples of telcos charging fees for either no service or substandard service. If a customer experiences a loss of service for a substantial period of time, providers do not credit the customer unless the customer makes a request. Even then, they may not get a full credit refund for the time the service was not provided, or if only a substandard service was provided. What other business could get away with charging a customer when they have not received a service in return?

Providers are failing to meet the customer service guarantee standard and are failing to proactively pay compensation if they are unable to meet timelines to fix landline services. I am looking forward to the telcos reporting on the levels of compensation that they provided to many of my constituents affected by the May floods.

With the oldest electorate in the country, many of my constituents lack the skills and tech-savviness to be able to navigate jargon and technology. One of my constituents, John, a 92-year-old still living at home in Allynbrook, was sold a brand-new mobile phone. He was told that it would finally enable him to make calls. It has not. John and his wife must still rely on their fading landline. I've seen constituents encouraged to disconnect their landline but, when the mobile does not work satisfactorily, they are then charged a $250 landline reconnection fee.

I think this is one of the issues, because the expectations of consumers are very different to the technical expertise of those selling the equipment. I know that the expectation of many consumers and many people in my electorate is that—when they know their landlines are failing and the copper technology is pretty much done and dusted—when they buy a mobile phone, sign up to a contract and give their home address, when they agree, the telco acknowledges that that service works at their house. I can't tell you the number of times that I've had constituents come to me, saying: 'I've been sold a phone. I bought it; I signed the contract thinking it would work at home, but it doesn't work at home.' But, then, Telstra, Optus or whoever it is, say: 'We don't guarantee. We will not guarantee that your service will work at home. It's a mobile phone; it's meant to work when you're roaming.' The expectations of the customer and the delivery by the telcos are not aligned, and that is a serious issue, particularly for older Australians.

I also want to speak to some of the funding which, sadly, we are not seeing in the electorate. The Mobile Black Spot Program has not been extended beyond 2026-27, with zero dollars allocated. Furthermore, the government has not allocated any funding in 2027-28 to the Better Connectivity Plan for Regional and Rural Australia. Like the Mobile Black Spot Program, there is no funding for these programs beyond 2026-27. There has been no announcement on another round for the Mobile Network Hardening Program. This funding is critical and important. The government needs to be supporting sensible policies that facilitate arrangements to ensure that the telecommunications infrastructure framework supports efficient, effective and equitable mobile telecommunications network delivery across Australia, including in rural and remote areas.

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