Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Before I respond to Senator Kitching's comments, I'd like to table three supplementary explanatory memoranda relating to the government amendments to be moved to the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer) Bill 2019 and the government request for an amendment to be moved to the Telecommunications (Regional Broadband Scheme) Charge Bill 2019.

I thank Senator Kitching for her comments and for the Labor Party's feedback on their amendments. The government does accept the amendments proposed by the opposition to the Regional Broadband Scheme. These amendments do not impact on the government's original policy intent for the legislation and these amendments provide an opportunity for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to review the modelling for the scheme prior to its commencement.

Nonetheless, the government remains confident that the 2015-16 modelling undertaken for the Regional Broadband Scheme continues to provide a reasonable estimate for the introductory charge. The short time frame for delivery of the report by the ACCC means that it will naturally be limited in scope. In recognition of the limitations of this analysis, the minister intends to ask the ACCC to commence a review of the costings for the RBS in due course.

Under the legislation, the ACCC will review the base and administrative cost components at least once every five years, to ensure they are sufficient to meet the reasonable net costs associated with NBN Co's fixed-wireless and satellite networks and the administrative costs of the scheme.

The government's complementary amendments, on sheet QL144, make sure that the ACCC will have access to current information from carriers as an input to its report.