Mary Aldred (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation) Bill 2025, a bill that the government says will strengthen consumer protection and ensure Australians can rely on their mobile phones when it matters most. This bill, in terms of the stated obligations presented by the government, is long overdue, and I speak from experience in my electorate of Monash, particularly the broader South Gippsland region, where residents live daily with frustrations caused by poor connectivity, unreliable reception and black spots that put lives at risk.

In Corinella, Waratah Bay and Walkerville, residents often go months without reliable phone access. I have constituents contact me every couple of days about a new example. Brian, from Corinella, recently contacted my office, saying:

Mary, if this keeps on going this way, someone in this town will die because they cannot call an ambulance.

These are not isolated incidents; they are the reality for many Australians living in regional and remote areas. Wendy, from my electorate, recently wrote to me as well:

Mary, can you look into the black spot of mobile reception along the Sth Gippsland Hwy at Grassy Spur?

This part of the Hwy is notorious for car crashes, yet there is no reception to call for help. Prior to 3g being turned off there was only a small section of a couple of hundred metres where you had no reception.

It is from the bottom of the hill to the top of Foster north on the Leongatha side and kilometres long.

This is the reality for residents in my electorate of Monash and residents who live in regional communities right across our country. This is the reality of regional communications under this federal Labor government. We're in Labor's no-care zone when it comes to digital connectivity.

During the election, Sussan Ley joined me in Korumburra to announce support for addressing mobile black spots across South Gippsland, West Gippsland and the Bass Coast, which is a key issue for our region. I was pleased to be able to announce a $3 million commitment to address specific mobile black spot eradication across the Monash electorate that the coalition would support, and I commit myself to working every day in this place to deliver on mobile black spot eradication and better regional connectivity for all Australians. The focus of this funding that was announced was on improving connectivity in areas, like Korumburra, where we have frequent service dropouts, particularly on the road to Leongatha. I want to give a shout-out to the local florist in Korumburra, who spoke with Sussan Ley and me about some of the issues that she had servicing customers and making sure there were secure and reliable phone connections in her business.

I've consistently raised this issue because, under the current Albanese Labor government, digital connectivity and mobile phone reception are not being addressed significantly. In fact, we're seeing a widening of the gap in digital infrastructure between metropolitan and regional areas. I was pleased that the initiative aimed to support local businesses and farmers, such as those in Korumburra, who struggle with unreliable phone and internet coverage, which really does impact on their day-to-day operations.

These challenges go beyond just my community. The 2024 Regional Telecommunications Review and data from the Regional Australia Institute shows that regional, rural and remote communities are falling behind in digital connectivity, with the digital divide widening as technology advances. I'll repeat that: the gap between those in our cities and metropolitan areas and those in regional communities, who I represent, is widening. Their access to adequate technology and services is getting worse, not better. I'll give some examples of these deficiencies.

While urban areas are able to access high-speed, reliable and affordable internet, regional and remote communities are struggling with service quality, reliability and affordability. A 2024 OECD report confirmed that connectivity gaps between urban and rural areas are increasing. Absolute chaos ensued after the 3G shutdown in 2024, of course, and many regional users of the 3G network were significantly impacted. Some of those communities were left without coverage or forced to rely on expensive and often unreliable alternatives.

We've also seen, according to a number of reports, an increasing trend of complaints. For example, between 2021 and 2024, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman received over 51,000 complaints from regional consumers regarding poor service, outages and unreliable connections. There's also been an increased gap for remote and rural communities. In 2022, the Digital Inclusion Index found a 12-point gap in digital inclusion between major cities and very remote areas, with the gap in access being as high as 18.2 points.

There's an infrastructure strain as well. The sea change and tree change migration trend that we've seen through COVID to many regional and peri-urban communities like mine has put additional pressure on existing, already weak regional infrastructure. Whether it's telecommunications or housing, we see this a lot. State Labor governments are asking regional communities and peri-urban communities to host additional infrastructure, but they are not supporting those communities with increased investment in infrastructure. That infrastructure is not keeping pace with new population and additional demand.

In the last seven months, I've had nearly 50 people contact me about mobile black spots and connectivity issues. These are local residents, small businesses and emergency service providers, and they all tell me the same thing: we've got to improve connectivity to regional communities. Peter from my electorate reached out regarding his two elderly parents, who were among 24 residents in Buffalo left without a landline for over a month. I'll repeat that. Peter's two elderly parents in Buffalo were left without a landline for over a month. That is not good enough and that is not acceptable, but that is the reality under the Albanese federal Labor government. They're real people in real communities facing real risks—particularly in an emergency or accident—because of the gaps in our telecommunications infrastructure, and this is getting worse. It is not improving.

I'm proud to represent a region that grows, makes and manufactures things the rest of Australia relies on. When our region succeeds, the rest of Victoria does very well, and Australia looks to us to provide those first-class products. I looked at an analysis of digital intensity requirements for our food and fibre sector right across the Gippsland region, because that sector will rely increasingly on digital services over the next three to five years. As their technology advances and changes, as they tap into new markets and as they adopt different ways of doing things, they need affordable, reliable and modern technology infrastructure.

They've got to be able to do that to provide those products to the rest of our state and across Australia. But we are, of course, a net exporter of everything that we grow, make and manufacture in this country, so, to be able to remain competitive across the globe and to be able to keep living up to that great reputation Australia has as a maker, grower and producer of very fine things, farmers, small businesses and manufacturers in my electorate of Monash desperately need better digital connectivity. I looked at a couple of things that will form part of the key primary production drivers in the region over the next couple of years, and already it's a pretty stark finding. A hundred per cent have a major supply shortfall in fixed access broadband services for business users, and 60 per cent have intermediate supply shortfall for LPWAN supported services. For these reasons, Committee for Gippsland—I used to very proudly serve as its CEO—has done some excellent work on digital connectivity across the region.

I want to commend the Gippsland Local Government Network and those individual local government organisations, like Baw Baw Shire, City of Latrobe, South Gippsland Shire and Bass Coast Shire, who have worked very hard to map, plan and prioritise those digital connectivity needs. They've been able to prioritise a number of those areas for the next round of the Mobile Black Spot Program, the Regional Connectivity Program and the Connecting Victoria program.

This bill, along with the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025, seeks to provide critical reforms that will help prevent situations where consumers are put at risk or are not able to access the services that they need and should be able to rely on. The bill says it will create a register of all carriage service providers, giving ACMA full visibility of operators in the Australian market. It says it'll make compliance with industry codes mandatory and enforceable without the delays of the current two-step warning process. This is a good thing. If you can have light-handed, industry-led regulation, that's a great outcome, but not in all cases is that achievable. Making that a mandatory and enforceable industry code is a step in the right direction. Requiring providers to report cybersecurity incidents and take swift remedial action is an important reform, particularly in the age we live in, where a growing number of cybersecurity related breaches and threats posed to consumers, small businesses and lots of companies across the board that deal with sensitive consumer data is important. This bill says it will seek to increase penalties for breaches from $250,000 to $10 million, with the possibility of even higher fines based on the provider's turnover or benefit obtained from the breach.

These measures are important because, for too long, compliance with industry codes has been seen as voluntary or a bit optional, even where those breaches affect people's safety. A good example is the emergency call database rules. These require providers to maintain accurate telephone numbers and addresses so that when a person calls triple zero—and we've seen multiple failures in that area under this government—emergency services arrive at the correct location the first time. You can't take a set-and-forget approach. In 2024, ACMA issued seven notices for breaches of these rules, but, under the two-step system, no financial penalties were applied immediately. People's lives literally depend on these rules being enforced and adhered to, and it's good to see tougher compliance being presented.

Another example is phone scams. In 2024 alone, Australians lost over $107 million to scam calls and messages. ACMA issued 10 directions to comply with the Reducing Scam Calls and SMS Code, but the two-step process delayed enforcement. This bill removes that delay, enabling ACMA to take immediate action to protect consumers.

The bill also strengthens ACMA's powers to monitor and enforce compliance across the sector similar to how the energy sector regulates its operators. Providers who pose a risk to consumers can now have their registration cancelled. Telecommunications companies will be required to report those cybersecurity incidents and to swiftly mitigate them.

One of the most important things I want to see prioritised under this federal government is better, more secure access by consumers in regional and rural communities for digital connectivity. They've been ignored for too long. They deserve far better, and I'll continue to fight for their access to improved digital connectivity and mobile black spot eradication.

Julie-Ann Campbell (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In 2025, Optus agreed to a fine of $100 million for engaging in unconscionable conduct with consumers—conduct that included selling telecommunications goods and services that consumers did not want, that consumers did not need, that consumers could not use and that consumers could not afford. In some cases, this included selling products where there was no Optus coverage. If we've learnt one thing, if we know one thing to be true, it is that, in this country, when you pick up the phone there is an expectation—a reasonable one—that you can get through.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission originally brought the court action against Optus. The ACCC indicated that many of the consumers were vulnerable, were experiencing disadvantage, were financially dependent or unemployed, didn't have English as a first language, or were First Nations people from regional and remote areas. In short, many of those most heavily impacted were the most vulnerable Australians in our nation. These tactics are fundamentally unethical. Targeting individuals who are already vulnerable, whether due to financial hardship, language barriers, unemployment or geographic isolation, indicates a calculated exploitation of those least equipped to advocate for themselves. In a fair, just and decent place, these practices have no place.

The Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025 is another important step forward in this government's ongoing commitment to ensuring that every Australian, regardless of their circumstances or their postcode, can stay connected and rely on a telecommunications system that is equitable, is held responsible and fundamentally is built on trust. This bill was first introduced in February 2025 and passed the House without amendment. It was considered by the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills but lapsed when the 47th Parliament was prorogued. It is an important bill because telecommunications connectivity is central to our lives and to everything we do. It's something that we all hold in common, no matter whether you live in regional Queensland or in the cities. Wherever you live, telecommunications are important. This infrastructure powers how we live, how we work and how we connect to each other on a daily basis. I'm talking about instantaneous personal connections via mobile calls, text messaging and video chats and about sharing the important moments of our lives with our friends, with snaps online.

Today's workplace looks very different to when I first started working. Now we have high-speed internet enabling us to work from home, hold virtual meetings and collaborate in the cloud. The same technology makes telehealth appointments possible. It sends us alerts during emergencies and has transformed our classrooms. As technology drives forward and makes what we previously thought was impossible a reality, we need to make sure that there are safeguards so that all Australians can enjoy that tech in a way that is accessible. Telecommunications are no longer the luxury that we thought of them as many years ago. They are a necessity which underpins our economy. In rural and remote communities, they are simply a lifeline. In urban centres, they are the backbone of innovation and they help drive productivity. For vulnerable Australians, they are often the only means of accessing critical support services, and that connection plays such a vital role in preventing social isolation.

Yet, despite the importance of telecommunications, too many Australians have experienced poor service, misleading practices and a lack of accountability from telecommunications providers. The reforms in this bill will change that. This bill empowers the telecommunications industry regulator, ACMA, with the tools it needs to protect consumers and to hold providers to account. Currently, civil penalties for breaches of industry codes and standards are capped at $250,000. That figure is woefully inadequate, and something needs to be done about it. It does not reflect the scale of harm that can be caused by noncompliance, nor does it serve as a meaningful deterrent. That's why this bill amends the Telecommunications Act 1997 to increase the civil penalty by 40 times, to nearly $10 million. This approach aligns telecommunications penalties with those in other sectors such as energy and banking, and it ensures that penalties are proportionate to the impact of the offence. The civil penalties framework will be revised so fines for regulatory breaches can be either $10 million, three times the benefit gained from the regulatory breach or 30 per cent of organisational turnover. It's a big stick, and sometimes we need a big stick to protect Australians.

The bill also expands the authority of the Minister for Communications, allowing for the increase of infringement notice penalties that ACMA can issue for breaches of industry codes, industry standards and service provider determinations. ACMA will also be able to directly enforce telecommunications industry codes, which will incentivise industry compliance and also enable a swift response in the event of consumer harm.

The bill establishes a carriage service provider registration scheme. A CSP is any entity that uses carrier facilities to supply communication services, like the phone or the internet, to consumers. There is currently no comprehensive list of CSPs operating in the market, and this lack of visibility hampers ACMA's ability to educate providers, it hampers their ability to monitor compliance, and it hampers their ability to respond to consumer complaints. The new registration scheme will change that. It will increase transparency, it will increase accountability, and it will give ACMA those powers to exclude dodgy providers who pose unacceptable risks to consumers. Ultimately, it will provide consumers with greater confidence in the providers that they choose.

Under the amendments to the Telecommunications Act, CSPs who pose an unacceptable risk for consumers or cause major consumer harm can be stopped from operating by ACMA. They can be shut down. This power will be used as a measure of last resort, with safeguards in place to ensure fairness, review rights and continuity of service for affected customers. This reform mirrors successful models in other sectors, such as the energy market, where regulators have used exclusion powers to prevent consumer harm. It will be a deterrent to providers and have the great benefit of increasing consumer trust and of increasing trust in everyday Australians and sending that clear message that, if providers do the wrong thing, there will be serious consequences. There will be a crackdown, and that is what the Australian people and consumers deserve.

Another crucial reform in this bill is the move to make telecommunications industry codes directly enforceable by ACMA. Under current law, compliance with these codes is technically voluntary. ACMA can issue a direction to comply, but stronger enforcement only follows if that direction is ignored. This two-step process delays action and weakens the accountability that we talked about and that is so important. This bill removes that loophole. It makes compliance mandatory from the outset, allowing ACMA to take swift action and to address consumer harm. This change will incentivise better behaviour across the industry and ensure that consumers are protected from the moment the breach occurs.

This bill builds on a series of reforms already rolled out by the Albanese Labor government. We have delivered a new industry standard requiring telecommunications companies to provide support to customers experiencing financial hardship. Another new industry standard requires these companies to support and assist consumers who are experiencing domestic, sexual and family violence, and this came into effect on 1 July. Earlier this year, the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 was amended to place obligations on the telecommunications, banking and digital platform sectors to prevent, detect and disrupt scam activity. In October last year, the government passed a very important reform—the telecommunications legislation amendment. Labor brought this bill and the Triple Zero Custodian and emergency calling powers to this House as a matter of urgency after an outage in the Optus network in September which affected the triple 0 system. The cause was a network firewall upgrade, and the result was that emergency services calls for customers in South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and parts of New South Wales did not connect. I can only imagine the emotions and the extreme distress you would go through in the midst of an emergency if your call to triple zero did not connect, yet this is what happened, with tragic consequences. During the 13 hours the system was offline, approximately 600 calls to triple zero failed. It is devastating that these failed calls were linked to at least three deaths.

Labor's reforms boil down to a simple premise, one which we all agree on: when there is an emergency, you need to be able to rely on your triple zero call connecting—not sometimes, not often, but always. The Triple Zero Custodian framework is now enshrined in law and formally establishes a statutory role responsible for overseeing the end-to-end operation of Australia's emergency call service. This reinforced a key recommendation of the review into the Optus outage in November 2023. It strengthened the oversight, ensuring the obligations being placed on telecommunications providers are being met. The legislation has reduced the possibility of outages with tragic consequences, as there is greater accountability and government scrutiny. The Albanese Labor government is utterly serious about telecommunications providers taking responsibility for their services.

This legislation also implemented a new civil penalty regime. It established enforceable obligations with meaningful sanctions in the event of a service provider failing to provide information or failing to act. Crucially, there are now also new requirements for providers to ensure their triple zero network is backed up by other networks, and there will also be a mandatory improvement plan after an outage that affects triple zero.

In line with these reforms, there are substantial investments to deliver a more connected Australia. The Albanese government will deliver $55 million for round 8 of the Mobile Black Spot Program and $50 million for the Regional Roads Australia Mobile Program pilot. These projects will road-test innovative solutions to improve mobile communications coverage on major regional roads. A further $115 million is being directed to 74 projects as part of the Regional Connectivity Program, and over $30 million in rebates is available through the On Farm Connectivity Program. These investments are improving coverage, boosting economic opportunities and enhancing social outcomes in regional, rural and remote communities.

This bill has been shaped by extensive consultation with key stakeholders, including ACMA, the Australian Telecommunications Alliance, the ACCC and the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman. Stakeholders have consistently expressed strong support for the bill's objectives, recognising the urgent need for reform and the benefits that it will bring. This bill empowers the regulator to do what we need it to do—to ensure that, in the face of unfairness, every Australian is protected.

Tom Venning (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks to the previous speaker for their contribution, but I must say we are not comparing apples with apples. It's well and good to put rules and regulations around existing services, but what happens when those services are getting worse or that service doesn't exist at all? That is the reality faced by too many rural, regional and remote Australians. Let me be clear from the outset: the coalition supports this bill. Frankly, it is overdue. It introduces commonsense changes to an act that has been lagging behind a rapidly evolving market. 'Commonsense' is not a word I would typically use to describe this Labor government, which is unfortunate for the Australian people and for the Aussie battler.

This bill is about visibility, accountability and, importantly, protection. For too long the regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, ACMA, has been expected to police the playground wearing a blindfold. There are over 1,500 providers currently operating in Australia. ACMA needs to know who they are and what they are doing. At the core of this bill is the creation of a formal registration process. If you want to provide telecommunications services in this country, you must apply to ACMA. Much like in the energy sector, if a provider poses a risk to the public or fails to meet their obligations, the regulator will finally have the power to pull the plug on their licence.

We're also seeing a much-needed hike in penalties. For the big players, a small fine is just the cost of doing business. By raising the maximum fines to $10 million or basing them on a percentage of turnover, we are finally giving the regulator a set of teeth. In the electorate of Grey, which covers over 92 per cent of South Australia, these rules matter. In regional areas, telecommunications aren't a luxury for scrolling through Instagram; they are an essential service. They are the difference between a business surviving or folding. Sometimes, they are the difference between life and death.

Why is this? I'll give you some recent examples. Under the previous coalition government, in the electorate of Grey, 54 mobile cell phone towers were built and installed. Guess how many were installed in the last four years? Zero. Nada. Nothing. Access to telcos is getting worse and worse. While the coalition supports these safeguards, I cannot stand here and just blindly congratulate this Albanese Labor government. It is one thing to tinker with the fine print in a comfortable office; it is quite another to actually provide service to the people in the mid-north, on the west coast, in the outback and, of course, for the Yorke Peninsula, who are having significant issues right now.

Watching the Labor Party manage a telecommunications rollout is a bit like watching a toddler baking a cake. There's a lot of huffing and puffing, but usually they just end up making a mess and expecting someone else to clean it up. They talk a big game about consumer protection in the bill, yet they've overseen the most botched, chaotic and disastrous transition in our history: the 3G shutdown across rural and regional Australia. The minister promised equivalent coverage. Well, I invite the minister to come to a Toyota. Come to Halbury. Come to the blackspot areas of my electorate and tell farmers that the silence on their handsets is equivalent.

While Labor pat themselves on the back for increasing fines, my constituents are paying—surprise, surprise—another Labor tax. But, this time, the tax isn't coming from the ATO. It is a tax because the 4G rollout wasn't finished before 3G was pulled. This means families are forced to fork out thousands for Starlink or expensive boosters just to get the basic signal they used to have for free. This is a tax based on postcode, yet our PM said he would govern for all Australians. They talk a big game on regional, rural and remote Australia, but their actions are the absolute opposite. It's the amount of money ripped out of rural and outback roads, particularly in outback South Australia. The lack of access to GP services, child care and aged care in regional SA is terrible. We have the worst health outcomes in the state. We have the lowest access to child care in the state. If you're ageing, you can't age in your local aged-care home; you've got to move hours away. And, of course, there are the telcos, with 54 towers in nine years versus zero in four years. The numbers speak for themselves.

Take Craig, a farmer on the Eyre Peninsula. Craig is trying to run a livestock business. He told me he had to give up ordering transport to move loads of sheep because he simply cannot get a signal. Imagine trying to run a farming business in 2026 where you can't even call a truckie to pick up your stock! That's Labor's connected Australia for you.

Then there's my good friend Lucas Bagshaw. Lucas faced every country person's nightmare this past harvest: a fire on his property. He grabbed his phone to call for help—nothing, no signal. He knew better than to rely on triple zero because in regional SA it is a roll of the dice. Lucas went through 3,000 litres of water before his neighbours, who only saw the smoke by luck, arrived to help. They lost a header—headers these days cost about $1.8 million—a baler and kilometres of fencing. If that signal had been there, the CFS could have been there sooner, and they might not have lost the header, the baler and the fencing.

I also think of Keith, a farmer from the mid-north who recently crashed his quad bike. He lay there for hours. He wasn't saved by 4G or a government safeguard. He was saved because he used a UHF radio and someone heard his call for help. I don't think anyone from Labor or the Greens knows what a UHF is, yet it has been a lifesaver for me and my family on our farm and for so many others in rural, regional and remote South Australia.

And then there are seniors. In Orroroo I spoke with David. His wife was forced to buy a new phone because her two-year-old Samsung could no longer access triple zero after the shutdown. They are pensioners. They can't just nip out and drop a thousand bucks on a new phone. In Streaky Bay, Rebecca has been calling because the internet and mobile coverage for the whole town just dropped out for three days during a severe heatwave with fire warnings. Imagine if the internet dropped out here in Parliament House for three days! Think about that: a heatwave, a fire threat and a total communications blackout.

Then there is Tarcowie in the mid-north of my electorate, a productive farming district where the silence of the phone lines is deafening and where the lack of connectivity is no longer just an inconvenience; it is a genuine threat to livelihoods. This issue is so significant that the Stock Journal has written an entire story, an expose, on this town and its troubling communications issues. The residents of Tarcowie are not in the outback; they're in a vital agricultural corridor. As local farmer Noreen Arthur puts it: 'We're not in the outback, but you wouldn't know it by the phone service.'

The situation in Tarcowie is dire. In 2024 alone, three residents died while working or living alone in the district. In these tragic circumstances, the limited mobile reception was cited as a major concern for emergency response. This is the brutal reality of the digital divide. When seconds count, Tarcowie residents are left searching for a signal. Residents are forced to walk outside in all weather or travel to the local golf club, one of the few spots with a booster, just to make a simple phone call. This is undignified, unsafe and, frankly, not acceptable. What makes the situation truly bitter for the community is the presence of what I can only describe as a ghost town—a Telstra facility standing just five kilometres out of town, installed nearly two years ago. Residents watched it go up believing help was on the way, yet the transmitter has never been switched on. Telstra now claims that this structure is merely a network facility for a tower nine kilometres away in Pekina. You cannot explain technicalities to a community that can see the infrastructure with their own eyes but cannot make a call.

The botched 3G switch-off has only compounded the misery. Residents report that since the transition to 4G and 5G, coverage has deteriorated. Calls are garbled and families are forced to rely on wi-fi calls, making calls within their own homes. This incompetence is strangling local enterprise. Take Tarcowie Transport, run by Joe and his partner, Taylor. Joe moves around a hundred loads in a season. He needs to coordinate with clients and contractors constantly, yet, in most paddocks, there is no service. If you break down, you're stranded—or you've still got that UHF radio.

When the signal drops, productivity stops—

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member will be allowed to speak in continuation at a later date.