QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Ms WELLS (Lilley—Minister for Sport and Minister for Communications) (14:44): I thank the member for her question. I also encourage her to read the Bean review. If you did, you would read the disturbing fact that, until our government acted, Australian telcos were not legally required to report outages—not required at all.

That's what happened under your side of the fence. We have already put in place changes which will be further strengthened on 1 November when the new ACMA determination, commissioned by my predecessor, takes effect. It'll mean telcos must immediately share information relating to outages with relevant emergency service organisations such as police, fire and ambulance.