Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of this bill, the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation) Bill 2025, because so many in our communities and all around Australia were shocked when we saw the communications failure and the outages that impacted the triple zero services. The very real consequence of a system failure like that is loss of life. We have basic standards and things that all Australians must be able to rely upon. Being able to call triple zero and knowing it is there and available is an essential aspect. Mobile coverage is now essential infrastructure. There is no doubt about it. For safety, for participation in the economy and for fairness, we should all be able to access that mobile coverage no matter where we live, in urban or regional Australia. It is essential.

This bill seeks to modernise universal service settings by creating a universal outdoor mobile obligation, a baseline expectation that Australians can access outdoor mobile voice and SMS on an equitable basis. On that basis, I support this bill because it does close a very real safety gap, especially in regional and remote Australia. It must be implemented with clear benchmarks, affordability safeguards and service provider accountability so that universality is actually practically meaningful and not just a pretty word to have on a piece of legislation. It has to be universal in application in real time out in the real world. Too many Australians still move through places with no mobile coverage at all on highways, farms, remote worksites, national parks and community roads. When something goes wrong—breakdown, injury, bushfire or flood—coverage can be the difference between help being on its way and help never arriving.

In September 2025, an Optus network fault linked to a firewall upgrade meant that some customers in multiple jurisdictions could not make triple zero calls for around 13 hours. The explanations that have been provided from the government and from Optus have, respectfully, not been satisfactory. Reporting and investigations indicated that hundreds of emergency calls failed, and the incident was linked to deaths. It was an awful reminder that emergency access can fail and that the consequences can be fatal. So this is really important.

The bill amends the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection And Service Standard) Act 1999 to establish a framework so that baseline mobile coverage is reasonably available outdoors to all people in Australia on an equitable basis. Of course, there are gaps within that language and we need to make sure, again, that, in practical application, that equitable access is actually there. Initially, these changes will apply from 1 December 2027 to the three national mobile carriers—Telstra, Optus and TPG—as the primary providers. I note that date—1 December 2027. We as a parliament are still basically accepting that there will be another period of six to eight months whereby there will still be that risk of triple zero not working the way it is meant to for it to be available. I appreciate that, probably, providers are saying that it's going to take them time to make sure they've complied and these gaps in coverage are closed. That's concerning because that says that government has, to date, been asleep at the wheel in making sure that we don't have these gaps in service.

The obligation initially centres on voice calls and SMS, not full mobile data. The framework is technology-neutral, allowing providers to meet obligations using existing terrestrial networks where coverage already exists and low-Earth-orbit satellites in areas without terrestrial coverage. The bill provides a flexible framework for the minister and/or ACMA, via delegation, to set standards, rules and benchmarks, including reliability, call quality, SMS performance and congestion tolerance.

While I can understand the practicalities of why the government has crafted the bill in this way, we have to be really clear about what the expectation is. The expectation from the Australian public is that we will not get the kinds of outages and failure of triple zero we saw in the Optus outage. Whilst the minister has built into this legislation a framework for flexibility and deference to ACMA, we have to be very clear that the standards, rules and benchmarks must meet the expectations of the Australian public.

A national baseline for mobile coverage is long overdue. We already accept universal obligations for fixed voice and broadband access. Finally, the same principle is being extended to the most popular device Australians carry—our mobile phones. The policy intent and public benefit is clear: leverage new satellite-to-phone capability to reduce the safety gap across vast areas beyond terrestrial networks. People in regional and remote areas should not be structurally excluded from baseline connectivity simply because putting up a tower in their area isn't profitable. These are essential services that must be available everywhere.

It is for that reason that I support the amendments circulated by the member for Indi. Inserting an explicit meaning for concepts like 'equitable basis' and 'temporary disaster roaming' ensures the inclusion of minimum standards for affordability and guarantees access during crises such as climate driven fires and floods. If baseline coverage exists but people can't afford compatible plans or devices, universality fails in practice. The framework contemplates equitable access, so this must translate into competitive retail offerings, transparent pricing and attention to vulnerable and remote consumers in locations where market competition may be thin. It's essential that this actually work in practice, that this not be a whitewash over the top of a problem and that we actually have people kept safe with access to a triple zero service that works.

Unfortunately, we know disasters are going to escalate in severity and frequency. We know they are cascading and compounding. That means access to a reliable triple zero mobile network is essential for all Australians, especially in regional communities, where we know they are going to bear the brunt of climate disasters. They will be hit the hardest and they will be the most reliant upon a triple zero service that works to make sure they can be safe. There is no doubt, as I have repeated often in this place, we are still so far from doing the investment in resilience and adaptation that is necessary to keep Australians safe in light of the kind of climate escalated events that are going to occur. It is essential that the government starts focusing on investing in that safety piece for Australians. That starts with making sure mobile coverage is available and accessible to all.

The bill is not about guaranteeing perfect 5G everywhere—I accept that—but it is about establishing a modern, universal service baseline for voice and SMS outdoors so Australians are not left without a lifeline simply because of geography. The Optus triple zero outage last year painfully showed us that lives depend on the integrity and reach of telecommunications.

Lastly, I can give a personal example. I enjoy doing long-distance trail events, often in very remote areas of national parks. I have taken it upon myself to actually buy a mini GPS satellite device to ensure I am trackable and can be contactable by family. But that is not something that is the norm. That is not something that people in regional or remote communities should be having to do. There should be this underlying basis of essential infrastructure when it comes to mobile coverage. So I will support this legislation. As I said, I will support the amendment from the member for Indi. But I want to be very clear to the government that this has to work in practice. This can't just be legislation to look like you're addressing a problem but not actually in practice meaningfully changing mobile coverage to ensure all communities have access to triple zero.

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