James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

I move amendment (1) on sheet 3460 revised as circulated in my name:

(1) Schedule 1, page 19 (after line 9) at the end of the Schedule, add:

Part 4 — Civil penalties

Telecommunications Act 1997

18 After paragraph 570(3)(ac)

Insert:

(ad) in the case of a contravention of subsection 148(1) or (3) of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999$40 million for each contravention; or

(ae) in the case of a contravention of subsection 151D(1) or (2) of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999$40 million for each contravention; or

From the outset, I want to put on the record that, for nearly a month, the coalition has been trying to work with the Albanese Labor government to amend this bill. Last night, the government claimed they'd been working in good faith with us. Let's be clear—they have not. These amendments were moved in the other place three weeks ago, and, whilst they were supported by the coalition and the entire crossbench, the Albanese government voted against them.

On the same day they declined to support the amendments to this bill, the Minister for Communications said in question time:

I offer, in good faith, that, if that is a live issue for you, given this bill is before the House, we can continue to work on penalties where it is already tabled in the House.

The shadow minister for communications wrote to the minister and accepted this offer, stating, 'Considering the significance of this outage, the tragic loss of life and the significant lack of confidence and trust Australians now have in the triple 0 network, the coalition wishes to accept your offer to continue to work with the Albanese government on this matter.' And guess what the coalition have heard since then? Nothing, absolutely nothing. The coalition has heard nothing from the government. I don't know whether the phones aren't working in the minister's office. Maybe they aren't checking their emails again.

The coalition has been calling for a public register of triple 0 outages so Australians can have confidence in the system and be informed. Optus has now had two major and catastrophic outages in under two years, both under the Albanese government's watch, and both times the parliament had to step in through Senate inquiries and Senate estimates to drag information out of them. This is not right. It is not good enough. Australians expect and deserve more. It is pleasing that the government, however slowly, has finally agreed to make this happen, but it is a pity that the coalition has had to drag the government kicking and screaming to do it.

The other amendment the coalition was seeking was for the reporting mechanism created by this bill to be more frequent and for these reports to be made public, so it was really disappointing last night that the Greens political party have done a deal with the government to deny this transparency mechanism from happening. The Greens have come into this place wanting more transparency and accountability and higher penalties, yet they've sold out for lower penalties than they were seeking and absolutely no transparency, leaving Australians languishing.

The Greens crow about selling out to big corporations. Well, the Greens sold out the Australian people for a rubbish deal with this arrogant Labor government. The coalition asked for penalties of $20 million per year. The Greens asked for $100 million, but they settled for $30 million. The Greens didn't talk to the coalition; they talked to the Albanese Labor government instead. The Greens wanted higher penalties. In fact, Senator Hanson-Young said yesterday:

… I want to say right at the beginning that I still think it should be more. I still think these big companies deserve everything we can give them.

These aren't my words. They are the words of Senator Hanson-Young.