Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Triple Zero Custodian and Emergency Calling Powers) Bill 2025
Senator GREEN (Queensland—Assistant Minister for Tourism, Assistant Minister for Pacific Island Affairs and Assistant Minister for Northern Australia) (12:35): Firstly, before I begin talking about the details of this bill, I want to thank all of the senators who've contributed to the debate and consideration of the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Triple Zero Custodian and Emergency Calling Powers) Bill 2025.
These reforms will ensure that the government has the appropriate powers to maintain effective oversight of the triple 0 service and support the continued availability of emergency calling to all Australians when they need it. They will strengthen the ACMA's role as the active participant in the triple 0 ecosystem while establishing the custodian as a coordinating body for the management of the end-to-end triple 0 ecosystem.
I note that senators in this place have moved amendments on this legislation, which we will interrogate through the committee stage. The bill, though, establishes a triple 0 custodian as a statutory office within the department, with functions and powers to oversee the entire triple 0 system. The government will also provide ACMA with additional powers to issue directions to carriers, carriage service providers and emergency call persons.
These directions may require critical information to be provided, such as technical details of an outage, policies and processes affecting triple 0 or restoration plans. They may also require specific actions to be taken, such as compelling consultation with other stakeholders, sharing information with emergency service organisations or making improvements to procedures to prevent a repeat failure from happening.
The custodian may require the ACMA to make these directions, or, importantly, the ACMA may act on its own accord. These changes will provide the Commonwealth with a permanent mechanism to oversee emergency call services both during outages and in business-as-usual operations. It will also give the ACMA the tools it needs to be proactive and forward leaning in pursuing a resilient, reliable emergency call service for the benefit of all Australians.
I want to go to the use and disclosure of the information that is obtained to clarify the way that the information will be used. The bill establishes rules for the use and disclosure of information to be provided to the ACMA through a direction. This framework allows information to be shared with emergency service organisations, with regulators and with other relevant bodies to remediate problems before they cause crisis and to respond during an outage of the triple 0 system.
It also allows the ACMA to act both in its remit as the provider of directions under the bill and as the regulator in charge of overseeing the rules which govern the triple 0 service. Information gathered by the ACMA under these powers will be provided to the custodian. The custodian will use this material to support its ongoing, systemwide oversight of triple 0.
The ACMA will also provide advice and analysis to the custodian to assist in identifying risks and, importantly, in improving preparedness across the ecosystem. This arrangement strengthens the ACMA as an active participant in triple 0 while maintaining the custodian as the central coordination and oversight function within the department. Now, in terms of penalties, about which I know there is a lot of interest around this chamber, the bill includes a civil penalty scheme for the contravention of an ACMA direction under this bill.
A contravention of any of the items within the ACMA direction will result in the maximum default penalty available to the ACMA under the Telecommunications Act 1997. Finally, the bill requires the ACMA to report to the minister every six months on the use of new powers, with a copy provided to the custodian. The minister may also cause a review of the custodian's effectiveness within two years of commencement.
The ACMA will report to the minister and the custodian on any issues it has decided either to investigate or not to investigate under its core regulatory powers. These provisions, importantly, reinforce accountability and provide flexibility to refine the framework over time. Of course we know this is an incredibly important bill.
The Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Triple Zero Custodian and Emergency Calling Powers) Bill 2025 is all about improving and protecting the triple 0 service. It's a reflection that this is the most critical service in our telecommunications system. It is about providing the government with stronger tools to monitor the end-to-end performance, maintenance and health of the triple 0 system.
The bill acts on the awful, tragic lessons of the past outages of the triple 0 system. It does that by establishing into law the powers and functions of the Triple Zero Custodian. The custodian will support the effective actioning of the triple 0 system, ensuring all persons can maintain trust in its operation and that first responder services will be accessible in the event of an emergency, because this should always happen without impediment.
As we proceed with this bill today, I stress to fellow senators that the expedited passage of this bill demonstrates our commitment to strengthening the safeguards around triple 0 and to preventing tragedies like September 2025 from being repeated. I call on all senators to support these initiatives and I commend this bill to the Senate. Question agreed to.
Bill read a second time.