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) (13:11): I'd like to clarify the question that you're asking so I can get you the information that you seek. I wonder whether it's helpful in the first instance to identify something that's well known publicly—that Singtel were required to change the structure of the company, when that foreign investment happened, to require two Australian directors.

We can certainly get more information. You will appreciate that this is not a question for the minister I am representing or the advisers I am speaking to. You are asking a question in relation to Treasury questions from a very former treasurer, so we will endeavour to get as much information for you as we can, particularly if there is a break in the committee stage.

What I would say, though—and I do want to reiterate this to you, Senator Shoebridge, but also to other senators in the chamber and make it very clear—is that we do find the conduct of Optus inappropriate and reprehensible, and we are taking very strong action. I think the minister has made her views very clear about the conduct of Optus in this situation, and we certainly are welcoming the investigation ACMA is undertaking so that we can be informed about how a failure of this kind could happen so close to a very similar previous failure where substantial fines were attributed, the community expectation was set and the laws in place were clear.

Yet there still seems to be a contravention here from Optus of those substantial laws, so we will make decisions in the future based on the investigation about further action particularly. What we are seeking to do, and I don't mean to excuse the conduct of Optus in any way, is insist that this bill applies to all telecommunication companies, not just Optus. The triple 0 system is an ecosystem, and we need every single telecommunication provider to be delivering on those laws, and we need to ensure that there is a proactiveness to the engagement from ACMA and the Triple Zero Custodian.

So while you seek information to make a decision about what potential penalties could be imposed on a particular company, I do think that this bill is broader and wider than just one company. We do seek to engage on the question of penalties; I think I've indicated that to the chamber. We will continue to have those discussions through the enhancing consumer safeguards bill as well.

We want the telecommunications system and the triple 0 system to be as strong as possible, and that's why we commissioned the Bean review after the last outage. It's why we responded to those recommendations and agreed to them. It's why we're implementing them and have implemented a number of them already.

It's why a determination was already in place. It's why the Triple Zero Custodian was already in place in the department. It is why we will seek to pass this bill, with the support of the chamber, to have the Triple Zero Custodian established in law so that we can have stronger, more proactive powers on any telco, whether that's Optus or any other provider.

We need to ensure the triple 0 call system is as strong as it can be.