Susan Templeman
Macquarie · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“The three key focuses of the government's action are, firstly, to disrupt and dismantle border threats to stem the flow of illicit tobacco and vapes to Australia before they make it to our shores; secondly, to enhance detection, disruption and destruction of illicit tobacco and vapes at the border and within the community; and, thirdly, t…”
“AUSTRAC is working with the banks and service providers to shut down the money flows that keep illicit tobacco profitable. Hundreds of accounts have already been closed and payment systems stopped.”
“We need to keep fighting it and not blame each other. Those opposite need to recognise that, just as we supported the steps they made, we need their full support in taking these actions.”
“That's not good enough for participants, it's not good enough for employers and it's not good enough for the economy. That's why these reforms are so important. This is the most significant change to employment services in 30 years. At the heart of these reforms is the end of the one-size-fits-all model.”
“The Commonwealth, states and territories are working together to reverse the equation for organised crime at every step and in every way to make the illicit tobacco trade more risky and less profitable, disrupting the illicit supply chain and shutting down illegal shops. This bill is another step in that process.”
“Mr Robert, at that time, spoke of the actions they were taking and the changes they were making on duty liabilities being paid when tobacco is imported into Australia.”
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“In 2024-25, these applications accounted for almost 40 per cent of all lodgements to the ART. So, 40 per cent student visa lodgements; 60 per cent every other government agency and process. It's disproportionate. Requiring oral hearings for this visa class is simply not sustainable for the ART. The growing backlog in these matters is a symptom of the current inflexibility of the procedures. I mentioned earlier the rapid review into the exploitation of Australia's visa system, which was done in 2023.”
“The change means that ART members will be able to spend more time scrutinising information and making decisions and less time in hearings or case management processes. Overall, what does that mean? It means faster access to review for applicants balanced against appropriate safeguards of reasonableness and the opportunity to put the case, through submissions, on why a matter should instead be considered through a hearing. So there's plenty of opportunity for that process. I want to talk about 'on the papers' for student visas. Importantly, the bill will require that all student visa refusal matters considered by the tribunal be determined on the papers—that is, without an oral hearing. The tribunal is currently experiencing this unprecedented surge in the number of student visa refusal matters lodged for review.”
“In addition to the limited set of circumstances in which the tribunal can currently dispense with oral hearings, the bill provides a new broad discretion for the ART to determine matters using the phrase 'on the papers', so based on the documents that are available. That's allowable if the issues for determination can be adequately determined in the absence of the parties to the proceedings and that it's reasonable to do so in the circumstances. The legislation constrains the discretion to ensure that the tribunal must give the parties opportunity to make submissions in relation to whether a matter proceeds without an oral hearing, and the tribunal has taken those views into consideration.”
“I will talk a bit about the specifics. The bill is seeking to address these challenges through amendments to both the Administrative Review Tribunal Act and the Migration Act. The proposals contained in the bill are informed by both the experience of the tribunal over the last 12 months and the rapid review into exploitation of Australia's visa system, which took place in 2023. These are changes based on inquiry and digging deep into what's going on and listening to what the ART says about what it's seeing now and how things might be dealt with more effectively. The first point in the changes is around new broad general discretion for the ART, because this bill empowers the tribunal to make more decisions about how best to allocate its resources.”
“The current inflexibility, coupled with an unprecedented spike in applications to the tribunal—particularly for the student visa cohort—is putting considerable pressure on the tribunal and demonstrating why there needs to be greater flexibility in the policy around oral hearings. The current model also has the outcome of leading to a system that could inadvertently incentivise non-genuine applicants to seek merits review to extend their stay. That would be to the detriment of genuine applicants. When we see that there is a possibility that non-genuine applicants or the people advising them are being incentivised to use this process, particularly where it is to the detriment of genuine applicants, then we absolutely want to act. These changes will support the ART to be quick, efficient and reliable as an avenue for merits review.”
“Generally speaking, the tribunal is required to hold an oral hearing to determine a matter even in circumstances where it's not necessary to do so. There are some circumstances where an oral hearing is not necessary, but those circumstances are limited—for example, where the issues in contention could be reviewed in written submissions because they go to objective facts, such as whether an applicant has a certain document or not. It might be things that they're required to have in order to be eligible for a visa. That's a factual evaluation—objective facts. The tribunal reviewing applicants like this without a hearing would therefore save time and money and mean more applicants can have their matters considered.”
“In that year, we've seen certain things and certain things have changed, and we're responding really promptly to those. The reason behind the ART is to restore public trust and confidence in an independent system of merits review in this country. We know that building trust takes time. I think these changes will be one more step to demonstrate our commitment to that and will be deserving of trust. Governance processes have been significantly improved, with merits based selection determining the appointment of those decision makers. That's a really good first step, and these proposed reforms build on that. Let's talk about the challenge. One of the most significant challenges that the ART faces is that there is limited flexibility to dispense with matters without an oral hearing.”
“There is not a government agency where a decision that's made isn't impactful for someone, so to have a body to do this is important. Notably, the ART is not a court. It's not bound by the same formal rules of procedure and evidence. This is not actually about having your day in court, because it isn't a court; it's a review tribunal, and it's designed to support quick and fair decision-making to provide applicants with outcomes as soon as practicable. So committed to merits review is the Albanese Labor government that we took the very bold and ambitious step to completely get rid of the AAT. That showed that we didn't think what was left was fixable; we thought that it really needed a total wholesale work-out, and that's what we've had. The new ART came into being in October 2024. What would that be? Oh, that would be a year ago.”
“In fact, what was embedded in the design of the ART is that you make changes as you notice things happening. This piece of legislation that we have here is an absolute example of why that process is so important to have as part of the ART, and that is that, when we see things that need to be fixed and need to be changed, we can do it. We don't have to wait for some formal review of the legislation for that to happen. I'm really pleased to be speaking today about these changes to the ART. When I think about the ART, I think about an organisation that makes really big decisions that reflect on the quality of life for people. It might be that people are unhappy with a Centrelink decision that really affects their life, and they may not have felt that the circumstances were fairly looked at. It might be an NDIS decision.”
“In order to be appointed to the new Administrative Review Tribunal, the ART, you have to have certain qualifications and standards. It is a merit based appointment, and that is absolutely appropriate for a body that is doing a merit based review of decisions that have been made by government departments and agencies. That was one of the fundamental changes that was made. As someone who sat on and chaired a committee that reviewed the legislation before it was adopted, I delved deeply into the new legislation for the ART, and I was very privileged to have done that. One of the things that we spent quite a bit of time talking about, which the records of the public hearings will show, was about when you review this tribunal. Do you do a two-year review or a five-year review?”
“I was very pleased to be here to hear the member for Nicholls, and I just want to clarify some of the things he finished with—the conclusion he drew—that there was no need to change the previous AAT and create the Administrative Review Tribunal. In fact, there was a great need to undertake significant reform of the AAT. One reason is that that tribunal had been stacked with Liberal and Nationals appointments. There were 85 former Liberal MPs, staffers, candidates and mates on the AAT, and that was something that had to change. The AAT was also not properly funded to do the work that it was required to do. Those opposite just saw it as an employment opportunity for failed Liberal and Nationals candidates, hacks, cronies and mates. It is now a fundamentally different process.”
“This builds on the $136 million uplift in funding for our national arts training organisations, who do the vital work of nurturing the next generation of Australian creative talent, and $35 million to support the transformation of the National Gallery of Victoria. We know there's more to do and we will do more. Next year the National Cultural Policy will be evaluated and updated. This is the first time that a national cultural policy will have been delivered across its full plan term and updated in its second iteration. So I ask the minister: what opportunities does that create? Too often creative workers have been told to accept insecurity as the price of their calling. We don't accept that.”
“These bills deliver on the additional commitments that we made in the arts portfolio during the election. Live music venues are fundamental to our cultural life. During the election campaign we committed an additional $25 million to the Revive Live program, which has already supported 112 live music venues and festivals. The program provides practical support, such as funding for soundproofing, equipment upgrades and artist fees. When visiting Howler in the member for Wills's electorate recently, I saw the difference these grants are making to the versatility and viability of venues. During the election campaign we also committed $12.5 million to restore South Melbourne Town Hall as the home of the Australian National Academy of Music.”
“A division having been called in the House of Representatives— Sitting suspended from 17:25 to 17:45 In our first term we boosted support for digital games developers, modernised the producer offset and increased the location offset to secure international productions. These appropriation bills also deliver on our promise to restore funding to the ABC and SBS, with new five-year funding cycles, giving them the stability they need to commission Australian drama, comedy and children's shows. The central ambition of the National Cultural Policy is that there be a place for every story and a story for every place. That's why we established artist residencies at World Heritage sites across Australia. The Blue Mountains will host one of the first, with Jonathan Jones working on Wiradjuri country in the Gardens of Stone.”
“We've provided $535.5 million to secure their future and the collections they safeguard. This funding has allowed them to plan with purpose and ambition, rather than worry about keeping the lights on. Through the Sharing the National Collection program, 21 suburban and regional galleries now display long-term loans from the National Gallery of Australia, including four extraordinary video works at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre in my community. Our screen industry not only gives voice to Australia's great stories; it provides thousands of jobs across acting and technical roles and in the small businesses who support them.”
“When Revive was launched in 2023, the government committed to 85 actions. Seventy-one have already been delivered. The impact of that is being felt on the ground. In our first term, we allocated $199 million to Creative Australia to reverse funding cuts by the previous government and to expand its functions. This support allowed 50 per cent more small- to medium-sized organisations secure multiyear funding. Music Australia, First Nations Arts and Writing Australia are providing valuable new support and strategic leadership to the sector, while Creative Workplaces is addressing bullying, harassment and unfair pay. We've also supported our national cultural institutions, which hold our collective memory and reflect our identity. Under the previous government they were left in crisis, with threadbare budgets and leaky roofs.”
“I'm very proud to be part of a government that places creativity back where it belongs, right at the heart of Australian society. I'm going to question the minister, who's responsible for this very large range of portfolio areas, and I'm going to focus on the arts part of the department. I want to ask for their thoughts on securing the future for Australian artists and other creatives. Creativity is not a hobby or a luxury. It's essential to who we are as Australians. The arts enrich our wellbeing, bind our communities together and tell the story of who we are as a nation. It's why the Albanese government takes its responsibility to support the creative industry so seriously. These appropriation bills embed that commitment in our national finances. They deliver crucial investments in people, in creativity, in memory and in imagination.”
“Attorney-General, why were these reforms so important, and what is the government doing to progress further reform to ensure the efficiency of the ART?”
“Now, no-one is suggesting that the process is flawless, but this comment came from Victoria Legal Aid during Refugee Week. They described it as providing fairer and more transparent decision-making. Victorian Legal Aid said: Through the ART, all asylum seekers now have the opportunity to be heard. And importantly, all asylum seekers have the same rights as every other person to seek a full review of the merit of immigration decisions made about them. Our Migration team has seen the immense impact of the establishment of the ART and investment in legal assistance on the lives of refugees and asylum seekers. Building a merits review system that is fair, efficient and proportionate to the issues in contention is in Australia's best interest.”
“I was very much involved in this important reform and, along with the member for Curtin, who's in the chamber, I chaired the House committee that led one of the inquiries into the legislation. In a series of hearings, we took evidence about the need for the changes but also how the changes would work, and we examined how the legislation would meet the policy ambition. The ART is built on more than 50 years of experience, learning and consultation. It draws on what we know works in a tribunal and it looked at what doesn't work. It fulfilled recommendations from the robodebt royal commission and several other inquiries, including the one I led and the 30 detailed submissions we considered. I want to give one example of the feedback that the new ART has received.”
“The ART reform progressed throughout 2023, and the new body commenced operations on 14 October 2024, almost a year ago today. The new tribunal has been designed to make sure that there is improved accessibility for users, that funding responds to demand and that there are more flexible procedures and more consistent processes across different case types. Mechanisms to effectively identify and deal with widespread issues are embedded in it, and there's funding for a new case management system. I need to point out that appointments to the ART are also done very differently. Each recommended appointee has to be assessed as suitable for appointment by an independent assessment panel, through a transparent and merits based process conducted in accordance with guidelines for appointments to the tribunal.”
“The coalition didn't fund the AAT, and they didn't care about the AAT. They simply saw it as an opportunity for employment for their failed Liberal and National candidates—the hacks, the cronies, the mates. We saw this clearly, and that made the AAT dysfunctional. It did not give Australians confidence that their rights of review were being properly upheld. Complaints from my constituents about how the AAT operated included the lengthy unacceptable delays, with some cases taking years to resolve, and a massive backlog awaiting hearing and consideration. In late 2022, the Albanese Labor government announced that we would completely transform Australia's system of administrative review by abolishing the AAT and creating the new ART.”
“I'm very pleased to be here to ask the Attorney-General to outline the importance of making sure the Administrative Review Tribunal is properly funded to fully support Australians who rely on our system of administrative review. The former government trashed the ART's predecessor, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. This is the body that reviews decisions of other government departments and agencies, critical decisions that impact on people's lives really profoundly. But, when the coalition was in government, it appointed 85 former Liberal MPs, staffers, candidates and mates to the AAT. Administrative review is an important part of our legal system. It's not a coalition consolation prize—something to be bestowed on people who may be past their use-by date in any other forum.”
“This piece of legislation today is part of a suite of things that are so vital to communities like mine—peri-urban areas that can be some of the most disaster prone places but also have a high number of users of roads and accidents on well-used but not always best-maintained and highest-grade roads through quite sparsely populated areas. We do need to have a triple 0 custodian who can have the oversight on this aspect of it. No doubt, as we get this new technology happening, as new things come in, their remit will expand to ensure that, whatever the mode of communication, whether you're dialling triple 0 through a LEOsat, whether you're using your wi-fi through your NBN or whether you're using your mobile phone or your landline, you have the ability to connect to the services that you need most. I commend this bill to the House.”
“It will require mobile carriers to provide reasonable access to mobile voice and text outdoors almost everywhere in Australia. The reforms obviously are going to benefit peri-urban communities like mine but also more regional and remote communities, and it's expected that the changes will help add more than five million square kilometres of basic outdoor mobile text and voice coverage across Australia. The way it will happen is that operators are expected to use a combination of their existing services and emerging direct-to-device technology provided through the low-Earth-orbit satellites, the LEOsats, to expand that baseline outdoor mobile coverage. So, for those in my community who want to give feedback to that, there is an opportunity to do that by later this month.”
“There's better coverage, particularly based on the Albanese government investment in new towers in places like Macdonald Valley and Hawkesbury Heights. Very soon the Mount Tomah mobile tower will be switched on. This provides coverage on a really busy and key part of the Bells Line of Road, which is used by people coming from the central west through to Sydney as well as by local users. There is still work to be done on Yellow Rock and a number of other sites, but these are improving. But there is so much more to do, and I think the crucial next step is the universal coverage obligation that we committed to during the election. The draft legislation is out for discussion. What it means is that outdoor coverage will be accessible almost anywhere Australians can see the sky.”
“I have heard many similar stories over the last decade, including on roads like Putty Road and Bells Line of Road. Everyone, no matter where you are in the 21st century, should be able reach triple 0 in this country. It should be a given. That's why I have been so focused on improving the telecommunications infrastructure in Macquarie and having better and more reliable connectivity. In the wake of the Black Summer bushfires, there has been significant additional funding, and recommendations from the royal commission supported that. That's resulted in a hardening of infrastructure in the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury, and that's both mobile infrastructure and NBN infrastructure, both of which provide really essential communications. We've got improved power backup.”
“As Macdonald Valley resident Siobhan Mahoney described, on reaching the scene of the accident, which occurred late at night, she couldn't get reception, so she had to drive and get help via wi-fi. These are her words: We had to waste time trying to get a signal and then eventually I came home to where we have Starlink, and that's how I managed to get hold of emergency services. When I think about our constituents—and I know the member for Indi would face similar challenges—in nonurban areas trying to access emergency support, there are many things that are part of solving that problem. This legislation is one piece of it, but there are others. Siobhan in the Macdonald Valley didn't need to imagine what goes through your mind when you can't connect to triple 0; she experienced it.”
“Periurban communities like mine in Macquarie are bushfire prone and flood prone and have long, lonely roads and sparse populations. Our communities highlight why that reliability is so important and why resilience is so important. So, when I look at this legislation, I see it in a context of a whole range of things that the Albanese government has been doing to increase reliability and resilience in really difficult situations, emergency situations. Triple 0 needs to work reliably when there is massive demand, such as in a bushfire or a flood. It needs to be accessible in quite remote areas. Just recently, only 20 kilometres north of Wisemans Ferry, just outside Sydney, residents were unable to phone triple 0 at the site of a tragic double-fatality car crash, when a car went into the Macdonald River.”
“This would ensure that all relevant stakeholders are informed quickly when there is a problem and that responses are coordinated effectively. There are also civil penalties that come into effect with this bill. The civil penalty regime supports ACMA's new powers. Telcos and other providers will face significant consequences if they fail to provide information or act as directed during an outage. The penalty framework underscores the seriousness of obligations under the bill and reinforces the government's commitment to protecting Australians by ensuring that triple 0 is reliable and resilient. That is, at the end of the day, our belief as to what this system has to offer—reliability and resilience. We've been very focused on one particular aspect of triple 0 and the failure that occurred with the Optus outage.”
“They'll give government greater insight into the system, and I think it will go a long way to rebuilding public confidence in triple 0—although, as I say, we need to see, in addition, the outcome of the ACMA investigation into this latest occurrence. Let's talk a bit about the statutory powers of this bill. It gives ACMA new statutory powers so they'll be able to issue binding directions to carriers, carriage service providers and emergency call persons. These directions may require information such as the cause and scale of outages, restoration plans, and policies and procedures affecting triple 0. The bill also empowers ACMA to mandate specific actions, like improving notification processes or sharing data with emergency service organisations.”
“The reforms improve coordination across the triple 0 ecosystem, and they give government the ability to step in decisively during outages. I think we have to be really clear, though, that Optus and all telecommunications providers already have obligations under Australian law to ensure they carry emergency services calls. That is already in law. The bill will strengthen the oversight that these obligations are being met. One of the things that will come in is a requirement for the testing of procedures. The sorts of things that we're going to see here will be in that prevention phase, ensuring that it is more rigorous and that there is more confidence in the processes that are in place. The custodian will drive changes that will reduce the likelihood of these sorts of incidents in the future.”
“But, while we are waiting for the findings of that investigation, we've brought forward the introduction of this bill, the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Triple Zero Custodian and Emergency Calling Powers) Bill 2025, to immediately strengthen government oversight of the triple 0 ecosystem. The bill is about prevention. It's about preventing tragedies like the outage in September from being repeated, by enshrining the Triple Zero Custodian framework in law. The function has been administratively established within the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts, but this now enshrines it in law, and it empowers ACMA with the tools that it needs to act swiftly.”
“For most of us, the occasions when we do it are few but frightening. What the hundreds of people who tried to call triple 0 felt when Optus failed to allow their calls to connect would have been shock, and I've heard them describe it as shock, absolute disbelief and total fear that they weren't able to get through. That should never be the case, and that's why we are going to get to the bottom of what has happened here. But you can't just use this interim period to hypothesise and speculate about what it might have been. It was so devastating for the people involved and their families. We know Optus have to be held accountable for the September outage and that they have to do better, and that's why ACMA, the communications watchdog, is investigating, so we all get the full facts of what happened.”
“The first time was when my then one-year-old was in a car seat in the car, and I turned around to get him out of the car and he was limp and non-responsive. My brain just fried: 'What do I do here?' Obviously, dialling what we called 'triple O' back then but is much more commonly known as 'triple zero' now was my response. What an incredible service it was to have the operator talk me through what I should be doing with this absolutely non-responsive child, who, as it turned out, was having a febrile convulsion. The operator talked me through bathing him and cooling him in water while I was waiting for an ambulance. It was a horrible experience. No-one who has ever called triple 0 will have done it for anything other than a really urgent and distressing situation, so we know how important this is.”
“I'm really disgusted to hear people suggest that this isn't something that Labor is taking seriously and that this government isn't doing everything it can to ensure that people can access triple 0 when they need it, from wherever they need it. I know it's tempting to play politics with something like this. I am particularly disgusted, though, when it is human lives that have been lost here in an awful, awful situation where Optus has failed. We will be holding Optus to account on its failures, and I would have thought any suggestion otherwise was beneath the member for Lindsay, but clearly not. I've had to dial triple 0 on very few occasions, but when I have had to do it it has been with a real and urgent need.”
“This bill looks at protections for consumers. We have separately looked at expanding access to services for consumers. We have got more protections for victims-survivors of domestic and family violence, and I am very proud to be part of a government that says the consumer comes first. The services exist to serve consumers, and how they are treated in the process is absolutely vital. I commend this bill to the House.”
“Whether it's in national parks, out on the farm or out in quite remote areas, outdoor coverage will be accessible almost anywhere where Australians can see the sky. Our objectives in doing this are to expand the triple 0 access for all Australians right across the nation. My community is only about 95 kilometres from Sydney, but this will potentially save lives because people travelling on very challenging roads where it is difficult to get a signal, like Bells Line of Road or Putty Road, will be able to call for help. It will expand outdoor voice and SMS coverage into existing mobile black spots that are really challenging to tackle because of the geography. It will improve the availability of mobile signals during disasters and power outages. These are the sorts of things that we are prioritising, always putting consumers first.”
“That's going to require the mobile carriers to provide access to mobile voice and SMS almost everywhere in Australia. I'm particularly keen to see this because I represent an electorate that has mountains and valleys. It's got rugged, World Heritage terrain where it's easy to get lost and, if you do get lost, really hard to make a phone call. The universal outdoor mobile obligation, the UOMO—it's very catchy—will ensure that up to five million square kilometres of new competitive outdoor mobile coverage will come into existence, including more than 37,000 kilometres on regional roads. It is so important for people travelling through the regions or living in the regions to have coverage as they drive.”
“We're saying to the sectors, 'You all have shared responsibility here.' This bill, in particular, lifts those consumer standards so that they are consistent. I do note that ACCAN highlights that 'new powers are only as good as the regulator who wields them'. Like ACCAN, we fully expect ACMA to act quickly and transparently when providers fall short, and we are confident they will do that. As Australians, we rely very heavily on phone and internet services every day. When something goes wrong, it does need to be dealt with quickly. Previously, there has been a gap in doing that. We recognise that there are a whole lot of things we need to do to expand the access to telecommunications. One of our policies—I think it's important to be reminded of this—is to have a universal outdoor mobile obligation on the telecommunications providers.”
“It's coming through a carriage service provider. It's coming to them, and, at every step of the scam process where scammers use social media, phone or email, where they then get people to dip into their banking, all those sectors have to be responsible for it, and that's what our legislation has done. I referred earlier to ACCAN and its support for the changes that we are making today. I note that they've thanked the government for putting consumers first. In their view, the reforms better align telecommunications with other essential services like energy and banking by strengthening enforcement, lifting penalties and making industry codes enforceable. You can see the consistency of the approach that we're taking in this way.”
“That new industry standard fits with this piece of legislation as one of several things we're doing to lift the standards and to make our telecommunications sector responsive to consumer needs. Another area that we've focused on in telecommunications that aligns with the bill that we're discussing here today is in the changes to the Competition and Consumer Act, which we amended to introduce consistent obligations of the telecommunications banking and digital platform sectors to prevent, detect and disrupt scams. So we're not seeing the telecommunications sector in isolation from banking when it comes to scams. Many a time, people will find that it is a text message on their phone that can be the trigger or the first attempt of a scam. It might be something on their social media. It might be an email.”
“People need that, because you don't automatically know what to do when someone makes a disclosure, and that training of telco staff is really important. The changes also ensure that victims-survivors will never be asked to engaged with the alleged perpetrator to resolve their telco issues. Again, that's about dignity. That's about ensuring you're not exacerbating a situation. There are a number of measures to prevent victims-survivors from being retraumatised, by not having to repeat their story multiple times or provide extensive evidence of abuse. Then what follows that is giving customers a greater say in managing the security and privacy of their accounts. So I'm very pleased that the first tranche of that came into effect from 1 July.”
“The sorts of things that are in that standard, which can make such a difference to a woman and her children who are escaping family violence, are things that will require the telco providers to be involved, to stand up and act and to keep victims-survivors safe, including reversing disconnection, suspension and restriction of services when a domestic and family violence safety risk is raised by a customer. It will also ensure that they're only contacting people using agreed methods and that they're hiding sensitive information, like calls to 1800RESPECT, and preventing those things from appearing on bills. That can actually save lives. The changes we've made also ensure staff are appropriately trained to recognise and support victims-survivors.”
“Since coming to office, the Albanese government has focused very heavily on lifting the standards for this sector. There has been a new industry standard requiring telecommunications companies to provide adequate support to consumers experiencing financial hardship. We've also had a new industry standard requiring telecommunications companies to support and assist consumers experiencing domestic, sexual and family violence, which came into force on 1 July, and I just want to share some of the details about that.”
“Another thing this bill does is make the telecommunications industry codes directly enforceable by ACMA. Really, the aim of that is to incentivise industry compliance and enable the regulator to take swift action to address consumer harm. These reforms will ensure that ACMA is an empowered and effective regulator and that appropriate structures are in place to drive better behaviour by telecommunications companies. This is not something that has just suddenly been needed; this has been needed for some time. I think every member of parliament here would have dealt with constituents who've had issues with telcos where those issues have not been adequately dealt with and addressed by the telecommunications provider. I would hope this entire parliament realises that this is urgent, and I hope the Senate realises that too.”
“This bill also expands and clarifies the authority of the Minister for Communications to increase infringement notice penalties that ACMA can issue for breaches of industry codes, industry standards and service provider determinations. Another aspect of the bill is around establishing what we call a carriage service provider registration scheme. Right now, we don't necessarily know who all the carriage service providers are, and this is about increasing the visibility of the CSPs who operate in the market so that we can stop the operation of dodgy carriage service providers who pose an unacceptable risk to consumers. Registering them means we have visibility, which means we have the capacity to act much more effectively when issues arise.”
“The cap is now up from $250,000 to nearly $10 million. It's a shame that we need to have such a big stick there to make the telcos do the right thing, but our conclusion is that we absolutely need to have much stronger powers and much greater capacity to act when they do the wrong thing. This bill also modernises the civil penalties framework so that the Federal Court has the option to issue fines for regulatory breaches. The fines can be $10 million or three times the benefit gained for the regulatory breach—so there's a very clear connection between the breach and the financial gain that the telco received, and the penalty will relate to that—or a fine of 30 per cent of turnover. These are much more significant penalties.”
“Remember that most of our mobile phone and landlines—for those of us who still have a landline—and a big portion of our internet is privately owned and privately operated, underpinned by the NBN, a government-owned agency. All the mobile stuff we do is all in the private sector these days. This bill equips the telecommunications industry regulator, ACMA, with the tools and powers that it desperately needs to protect consumers from poor and harmful telecommunications practices. Significantly there are very big increases in the penalties that can be applied. For instance, it increases by 40 times civil penalties that the Federal Court can issue for breaches of industry codes and industry standards. We're not just doubling something. We're not just boosting it a bit. What we're saying is that this needs to be much bigger—40 times larger.”
“We need it for our families; when I was running a small business, I absolutely needed reliable telecommunications to run my business; and our communities need it, particularly when there are disasters. Goodness knows that my electorate of Macquarie—the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury—has experienced more than its fair share of natural disasters, where connectivity has absolutely been key. It isn't just during the crisis that it can be life saving to have connection; it's following the crisis, in the speed with which things are restored that can make such a difference. We know that Australians deserve of a telecommunications system that is fair, accountable and built on trust.”