Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

Let me be clear about what the key issues in this legislation are. What the coalition seems to be focused on is a register of outages that we've mandated telcos to maintain after the outages happen. What the substantive powers of the bill do is set up a triple 0 custodian that has broad powers and functions to direct ACMA to not only investigate but make directions about actions to be taken, procedures and consultation before an outage happens. And there will be civil penalty provisions provided, based on those directions and the failure to comply with them. So it is not true to say that this bill does not contain those powers. It is not true to say that this bill does not keep telcos to account. And it is not true to say that I have not been clear about the register that we are proposing today and that it will not increase transparency and accountability. What I have said is that we will determine, in consultation, what the parameters are, and I invite the coalition to be part of that discussion. I invite you, Senator McGrath, to be part of that discussion. I invite the shadow communications minister to be part of that discussion. You've said today that you acted in good faith. I think you should act in good faith on the consultation around the development of that register, and I think you should act in good faith by passing this bill today.