Madonna Jarrett (Brisbane, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025. Telecommunications is no longer about making a phone call. It's about how we work, how we learn, how we do business, how we entertain and how we stay safe. In Brisbane and across the country, connectivity underpins almost every part of our daily lives. Whether you're a parent working from home in Paddington, a small cafe in New Farm using online ordering systems or a student at the Queensland University of Technology streaming lectures, telecommunications is not optional. It is essential infrastructure. It keeps us connected to what we do.

Just a few years ago, COVID accelerated the development and uptake of technology, making it easier for people to work from home and do business more quickly. Teams and Zoom are now part of the fabric of how we work, but it's just one piece of the technology landscape. Living in a digital age has changed in my lifetime, and it's certainly different to what generations before us experienced. In my first speech, I relayed the story of how a few of us at high school pushed the community and the school to get one computer that we could all share. Now we all carry them around in our backpacks and in our bags, along with our tablets and our mobile phones. Even as I'm speaking here, I'm sure there are people in this chamber using their devices to respond to emails or catch up on the news. We are more connected than ever before.

That's why Australia deserves a telecommunications system that is fair, accountable and built on trust. And it's why this Albanese Labor government is taking action through this bill to give the Australian Communications and Media Authority, ACMA, the power it needs to hold companies to account, to protect consumers and to build a system that works for everyone. For too long, penalties for misconduct in the telecommunications sector have been too low to really act as a genuine deterrent. The maximum civil penalty for breaching an industry code or standard has been $250,000. That may be a lot to a family living in Brisbane and dealing with the cost of living, but to a billion-dollar telecommunications company it is nothing more than loose change. We've seen the consequences: too many Australians have been hit with unfair fees and misleading offers and left stranded without services.

You may recall the recent story where Optus was investigated by the ACCC and then admitted to engaging in unconscionable conduct. The company agreed to a $10 million penalty for selling customers phones and contracts they didn't need. In some cases, people were sold plans even though they lived in areas of our country where Optus services weren't available. This is unconscionable, and the consumer watchdog sued the telco in October over these practices, but it affected hundreds of vulnerable customers. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said that 'many of the affected consumers were vulnerable or experiencing disadvantage', including living with a disability, being unemployed or having English as a second language. As we know from the news, many of those consumers were First Nations Australians from regional, remote and very remote parts of Australia. In one instance, we heard that a First Nations consumer who spoke English as a second language was approached by Optus staff outside a store and pressured to enter into a contract. They then entered into multiple phone plans and contracts for products including high-end phones, the ACCC said, for a total minimum cost of $3,800 or more over a 24-month period. This person didn't even have Optus coverage at their home address and was later pursued by debt collectors. Can you imagine how much anxiety would be associated with being in that position?

I've also heard stories from families in my electorate, families in suburbs like Newmarket and Ashgrove, who waited weeks to have a simple service issue resolved—some related to ongoing intermittent services—and who couldn't get a straight answer from their provider. For a small business, we know that weeks without internet or EFTPOS, or even with intermittent service, is not an inconvenience. It means loss of income. It means potentially lost jobs. This bill recognises that reality. It lifts the penalties 40-fold, from $250,000 to nearly $10 million, and it modernises the framework so that the courts can impose fines that actually bite and will hurt these companies that do the wrong thing. These can be $10 million, three times the benefit obtained from the breach or up to 30 per cent of turnover. What this means is that the penalties will match the scale of the harm done and match the size of the company that's doing it, because consumers in Brisbane and across Australia should never again be left thinking that telcos treat penalties as just a cost of doing business.

Another major reform in the bill is making telecommunications industry codes directly enforceable. At present, compliance with industry codes is technically voluntary. If a provider breaches the code, the ACMA can only issue a warning or direct a company to comply. Real enforcement only comes if the company continues to break the rules. This means companies get away with egregious breaches for far too long while consumers get left in the lurch and get hurt. This bill ends that nonsense. With these reforms, ACMA will be able to take direct enforcement action straightaway. For families or individuals in suburbs like Stafford, Alderley or Kelvin Grove, this means stronger assurance that their provider will treat them fairly, not after three warnings, not after months of back and forth, but from the outset. This bill establishes a carriage service provider registration scheme. A carriage service provider is simply any company that uses carrier facilities to supply phone or internet services to you, me, and others—think Optus, Telstra and Vodafone, just to name three biggies. Right now, there is no comprehensive list of exactly who these providers are. The consequence of that is it makes it harder for ACMA to engage with them, educate them, track misconduct or even remove dodgy operators who cause the most harm.

We know that scams and fraudulent operators thrive in the shadows. Without transparency, consumers in Brisbane and across the country can be targeted by providers who appear legitimate but are anything but. It's only fair that consumers know exactly who they're dealing with, and this bill fixes that by creating the register. It increases visibility, increases accountability and gives ACMA the power, as a last resort, to exclude dangerous or dishonest providers from the market. We have seen similar powers work in the energy sector, where the regulator has been able to shut down unscrupulous retailers to quickly prevent harm. The same should apply here, because in Brisbane—whether you're a renter in Bowen Hills setting up your first internet account or a retiree in Red Hill looking for a cheaper phone plan—you should be able to trust that the provider you choose is honest and is playing by the rules.

These reforms did not just come out of nowhere. They build on a strong track record by the Albanese government of protecting consumers in telecommunications. Already we've introduced new industry standards requiring telcos to provide meaningful support to customers in financial hardship. We've brought in a new standard that compels telcos to support people experiencing domestic, sexual and family violence. We've amended the Competition and Consumer Act so that telcos, alongside banks, digital platforms and others, must actively work to prevent, detect and disrupt scams.

I want to stop on that last point because scams are a growing issue not just in Brisbane but around the country. Late last year, I spoke with David, who is part of one of our local Neighbourhood Watch groups, and he shared a story with me where a pensioner from his area had nearly thousands of dollars drained from his account after a sophisticated phishing scam that was linked to a compromised mobile service. This government has acted decisively so that telecommunications companies can no longer shrug their shoulders. They must step up, they must detect scams and they must protect consumers. Through this bill, we are backing that expectation with serious enforcement teeth.

Scams are an economy-wide problem and we need an economy-wide response. That's why we've released the Scams Prevention Framework. The National Anti-Scam Centre has brought together the expertise of regulators, law enforcement and the industry to stop scammers reaching Australians. Their united efforts are working, with scam losses reported to Scamwatch falling by about 41 per cent over a 12-month period. The community also needs more tools to arm themselves against scammers. To tackle this, the government ran a campaign to improve community awareness of scams and to help Australians identify and report scams. But we still have more to do.

Consumer protection is only one part of the story. Connectivity itself remains a challenge, especially outside our capital cities. The Albanese government has invested heavily to change this, including our Mobile Black Spot Program and legislation to ensure mobile coverage for our rural and regional areas. Now, I know Brisbane's not classified as regional in the same way as Central Australia or the Pilbara; however, our city still feels the pain of poor connectivity, particularly on major highways and fringe suburbs. Anyone who's driven along the Bruce Highway, heading north out of Brisbane—thousands will do that this weekend—or out to Ipswich for a site inspection will know the frustration of dropping out of coverage. For commuters, for businesses transporting goods and for families on the road, these aren't minor inconveniences; these are actually safety issues. By investing in regional connectivity, we are not just helping rural communities; we are strengthening the arteries that connect Brisbane and other major cities to the rest of our nation.

These reforms aren't about punishing industry for the sake of it. They're actually about creating a level playing field and restoring trust. This is critical in today's world, where almost everything we do relies on connectivity, and where we have very large companies that provide the majority of necessary infrastructure and many small businesses that keep our communities humming.

Brisbane is a young, dynamic, growing city. Our electorate is full of students, families, startups and small businesses who expect and deserve telecommunications that are reliable and fair. When I speak with students from the various universities we have in Brisbane about the rising cost of living, they tell me that even a small disruption to internet access can mean they miss a lecture, they don't get to do their shift at work, they might get an assignment in late or they might fall behind. When I speak with small-business owners in Clayfield, they tell me that losing EFTPOS or online ordering for a few hours or even for a day can mean hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars lost. What does that translate to? A poorer economy and job losses.

That's why this bill matters. It says to the telcos, 'If you do the right thing, you have nothing to fear. But, if you breach the trust of Australians, if you exploit consumers, if you put profit before fairness, then you will face real consequences.' This bill is about fairness. It's about accountability and it's about trust. Australians should not have to wonder whether their telecommunications provider is cutting corners or gaming the system for their benefit not the consumer's. They should know that, if the rules are broken, action will be swift, penalties will be serious and consumers will be protected and compensated.

The Albanese government is committed to keeping Australians connected no matter where they live, no matter their circumstances, and with this bill we are ensuring that the regulator is empowered, that industry codes are enforceable and that dodgy providers can be identified and can no longer slip through the cracks. It's about making sure consumers are protected and that there is trust in our telecommunications system. It's about delivering a telecommunications system that supports our families, our businesses and our communities. I commend the bill to the House.

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