Scams Prevention Framework Bill 2024
Ms McBRIDE (Dobell—Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention and Assistant Minister for Rural and Regional Health) (20:41): I'm pleased to speak in support of the Scams Prevention Framework Bill 2024. It's another example of a policy challenge which it has taken a Labor government to get on top of. Even before bringing this new framework to parliament, the Assistant Treasurer had overseen the first reduction in scam theft in Australia in nearly a decade.
In 2023, despite a 19 per cent increase in the number of reports, Australians lost 13 per cent less to scams than they did the year before. It's a significant turnaround, and I acknowledge the Assistant Treasurer's work in my electorate, together with many other electorates across the country. But despite this progress, this challenge isn't going away, and there is more to do.
We've all heard heartbreaking stories of people in our communities being scammed. These include stories I've heard at the several scams forums I've held in my electorate, including at Long Jetty and Toukley, the first around three years ago. I've heard the devastation of losing hard-earned savings or watching family and friends suffer through this experience.
That includes my mother, who was a victim of a scam, an identity theft, and ended up having to replace her personal identification: her drivers licence, her passport and her credit card. I spoke to her about it again tonight, and she said that not only did it take a long time but having to go through this induced a lot of anxiety. I've heard the pain of people who have been tricked by those who pretend to come to them with something to offer only to reveal that what they are, in fact, is predators.
My community on the Central Coast of New South Wales is as vulnerable to scams as any other. What's pleasing to me is that we are also growing people's awareness of these scams and people's ability to identify them, report them and not fall victim to them. Shortly after a scams awareness forum I held with the Assistant Treasurer in Long Jetty, Frank from The Entrance got in touch with my office.
He said: 'Thanks for your scams information. It was timely, as I'd just received one about unpaid tolls. I referred it to Scamwatch with all the information available.' There are too many stories just like Frank's, but it's so important that Frank had the information and the ability to then report the scam to make other people less likely to be victims of this scam.
The Scams Prevention Framework contained in this bill takes another important step in our work to protect the Australian community. The bill implements the government's election commitment to require social media companies, banks and telecommunications providers to take robust steps to prevent and respond to scams impacting consumers, and it creates the framework to do this: prevention, detection, reporting, disruption and response.
We know the vast majority of businesses want to protect their customers from scams—of course they do. Many will already be working to these principles, and we recognise that and acknowledge it. This legislation offers the chance to strengthen our efforts through the development of strong, legally enforceable, sector-specific codes which will spell out the obligations for regulated sectors.
The new laws create an enforcement regime, bringing in the ACCC, ASIC and the Australian Communications and Media Authority—giving it teeth—and they give consumers new rights and avenues for redress if entities in those regulated sectors fail to meet their obligations. The framework will mean that all points of the scamchain are held to account, and it will work in a cross-sector way to deal with scammers operating across multiple platforms.
Equally, scams are a global challenge and demand international cooperation. That is why the framework supports the government and industry in international engagement and collaboration. I mentioned the shared purpose most businesses have with the government in wanting to protect their customers.
With more sharing of intelligence across regulated entities in the Australian economy, the framework can in turn support this work abroad. The opportunity costs of scams in our country are enormous—some $2.7 billion in 2023. Let's assume, for a moment, that amount was equally shared across the 151 electorates of the members of this House.
That represents nearly $18 million per seat. The people of my community on the Central Coast of New South Wales can't afford to lose $18 million, and nor can people across the country. That's why this legislation matters.
Reducing scam loss is important as it affects too many Australians. In conclusion, I commend the bill and in doing so acknowledge the responsible minister and member for Whitlam, Stephen Jones, for his work. I wish him well as he leaves this place at the next election.
Debate adjourned. House adjourned at 20:4 6