Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am happy to show much more enthusiasm than Senator Dastyari did for the Communications Legislation Amendment (Deregulation and Other Measures) Bill 2015 Telecommunications (Numbering Charges) Amendment Bill 2015. To start, I just want to reflect briefly on the mis-truths, half-truths and falsehoods that Senator Dastyari has used to populate his very sparse contribution to this important issue. What Senator Dastyari conveniently ignored was the review and the findings of the Strategic review that was done into the NBN at the commencement of this coalition government's turn. For the sake of the Senate and indeed perhaps for the sake of Senator Dastyari's education I might just quote from the executive summary of the Strategic review into nbn co—and I see Senator Dastyari smiling, so he might actually know what the review says. Turning first to page 11, the report talks about the, 'operational performance to date and revised outlook,' of nbn co at the time when this coalition government inherited that particular project. It said:

At 30 September 2013, the rollout of the brownfields FTTP network was 48 percent behind the planned Premises Passed in the Corporate Plan, with 227,483 Premises Passed at that date. Of these premises, only 153,977 are Serviceable (i.e. premises that are available to be connected) by NBN Co. The greenfields and Fixed Wireless rollouts are also behind the Corporate Plan. The Revised Outlook for the current deployment plan indicates that the fibre rollout project will take three years longer to complete than indicated in the Corporate Plan, with a revised end date of June 2024. The Revised Outlook for Premises Passed at June 2014 is 357,000 compared to 1,129,000 in the Corporate Plan.

I cannot help myself, so I just want to reflect briefly on what the Strategic review had to say about the governance, planning and reporting performance under the previous government's administration of nbn co. The Strategic review said:

The Independent Assessment found that certain of the factors causing the financial and operational under-performance to date (relative to the Corporate Plan) related to governance, planning and reporting including: An unrealistic assessment by key internal and external stakeholders of the complexity and time required to complete the task; “Blind faith” in the achievability of the Corporate Plan, notwithstanding clear factual evidence to the contrary; Some significant operational decisions being made without appropriate commercial rigour and oversight;

That is just a taste of what the Strategic review had to contribute, which was revealing for the new government when it came to inherit nbn co. I am happy to report that first under Minister Turnbull, now the Prime Minister, and now under the current Minister For Communications, Senator Fifield, things are well and truly back on track.

But I would like to turn specifically now to the Communications Legislation Amendment (Deregulation and Other Measures) Bill 2015 and the Telecommunications (Numbering Charges) Amendment Bill 2015. These bills are another manifestation of the coalition government's overarching commitment to removing needless, burdensome regulation from right across government and fostering a more innovative culture that benefits consumers through greater competition. Since coming to office, the coalition government has removed over 3,000 pages of outmoded regulation from across the span of the communications portfolio, which together represent savings of around $300 million per year for those involved in the sector.

The communications portfolio, being what it is, the evolution of technology and rapidly changing patterns of consumer behaviour are combining to present a particular challenge for legislators. The legislation before us today is designed to remove regulatory impediments to innovation whilst still preserving the flexibility that regulatory authorities need to rapidly adapt to these technological and consumer driven changes.

In terms of the specifics, this bill will achieve a number of things. Firstly, it introduces a more efficient regime for broadcasters and datacasters when it comes to account-keeping and licence fee administration under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992. This legislation will change the default audit requirements that apply to certain financial information provided by licensees to ACMA at the end of the financial year. These changes will allow ACMA to request the auditing of financial documents if ACMA considers it necessary. In other words, broadcasters and datacasters will not have to submit to default audits by ACMA. The approach will instead become a risk based one. Additionally, the bill will now permit ACMA to waive small licence fee underpayments where, in the regulator's opinion, it would not be sufficient to recover the amount unpaid.

This legislation will also make some improvements to Australia's classification regime. At present, commercial and community broadcasters are required to classify films they broadcast using the film classification scheme separate to the code based classification system that applies to other TV programs. This process was originally established to maintain consistency between classification ratings applied to films screened in the theatre or released on DVD and for when those films were broadcast over television. However, the two codes have now converged to the point where they are almost indistinguishable and thus the rationale for the two separate processes no longer applies. The changes set out in this bill will permit broadcasters to use a single classification scheme for all their broadcasts and thus provide greater certainty for consumers.

The legislation will also make some changes to the information collection powers of both ACMA and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Under a regime that was first established almost two decades ago, ACMA was required to monitor and report to the minister and, in turn, the minister was required to table a report in parliament each financial year on significant matters relating to the performance of the telecommunications industry. This procedure was put in place as a mechanism when the Australian telecommunications sector was radically altered by the deregulation of the communications sector 20 years ago. However, with that approach having now come to maturity, there is no longer any compelling reason for such an onerous reporting mechanism. Thus, this bill will limit the mandatory aspect of ACMA's reporting requirements to matters of national interest and data retention, while still allowing ACMA the flexibility it needs to report on other matters should it wish to do so.

Section 151CM of the Competition and Consumer Act requires the ACCC to monitor and report to the minister each financial year on charges paid by consumers for listed carriage services, ancillary goods and services and Telstra's price control arrangements. This requirement no longer fits the reality of the telecommunications market in our country. In fact, the current approach is likely providing a limited and therefore distorted view of the realities of today's operating environment. This legislation will usher in a more flexible regime that will allow the ACCC to monitor and report on those services which the ACCC considers are the most commonly used consumer services supplied using a telecommunications network. Further, the legislation will replace the requirement for the ACCC to report to the minister and for the minister to table a report in the parliament with a requirement that the ACCC prepare and publish each report on its website within three months of the end of each financial year.

The legislation will also amend the Telecommunications Act to facilitate a transition to an industry based scheme for the management of telephone numbering resources, with the proviso that particular safeguards are met. At present, ACMA is required to make a plan for the numbering of carriage services and the use of numbers in connection with the supply of services to the public. This numbering plan must specify the numbers for use and may set out rules for the allocation of numbers to carriage service providers, the transfer of numbers between carriage service providers and the surrender of numbers by carriage service providers. In today's rapidly evolving communications environment, it is questionable whether this approach is going to meet consumer needs. Certainly industry stakeholders have expressed concerns that it will not meet consumer needs and that the present system is needlessly costly which ultimately ends up being an issue for all consumers.

This legislation will amend the Telecommunications Act to enable the minister to appoint a numbering scheme manager to manage numbering resources on behalf of the Commonwealth under a self-managed industry scheme. Under such an arrangement, the scheme will still need to achieve key principles specified in the legislation, including an adequate and appropriate supply of numbers, protection of the interests of consumers, the promotion of effective competition, support for the emergency call service and the ongoing collection of numbering charges. An industry managed scheme will only be permitted to commence once the minister is satisfied these conditions will be met and maintained. These proposed arrangements provide the telecommunications industry with an opportunity to introduce more efficient arrangements for managing telephone numbering resources while maintaining core consumer and competitive safeguards in relation to numbering.

The changes made in this legislation are eminently sensible and designed to make certain that our regulatory framework better reflects contemporary reality. The support of the opposition is welcome in this regard, as indeed it is from the Australia Greens. We have certainly come a long way from Senator Conroy's days as the minister for communications when he dreamed of being an all-powerful commissar who could force telecommunications executives to, in his own words, 'wear red underpants on their heads'. Just as Senator Conroy's comments betrayed an attitude to telecommunications rooted firmly in a bygone era, the changes being made to Australia's communications framework through these bills will ensure that the nation is better equipped to deal with the fast-moving realities of disruptive technologies and to take advantage of them in a way that benefits broadcasters, telecommunications companies and, of course, consumers.