Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation) Bill 2025
Ms ALDRED (Monash—Opposition Whip) (17:00): I rise to speak on the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation) Bill 2025 and the amendment. The coalition is pleased to support it. The bill establishes a registration scheme for carriage service providers, gives ACMA greater visibility over the estimated 1,500 operators in the Australian telecommunications market, makes industry codes directly enforceable, and removes the existing two-step enforcement process.
Importantly, it also substantially increases the maximum penalty for breaches of industry codes and standards from $250,000 to $10 million, with a scope for even greater penalties depending on the benefit obtained or the turnover of the provider. These are significant reforms. When we are talking about compliance with rules governing triple zero, cybersecurity and scams, there must be consequences when providers fail to meet their obligations.
I want to use my contribution today to talk about what consumer protection means to the people I represent in my electorate of Monash, because in regional Australia there is an even more fundamental telecommunications safeguard requirement: having a service that works and works properly. I've said this before in this place and I'll say it again: regional communications and digital connectivity are critical issues for my electorate.
When I spoke on telecommunications in this place in September last year, I told the House about the experience of almost every South Gippslander I have spoken to. From Korumburra to Leongatha, every local knows the mobile phone black spots. From Leongatha to Meeniyan, they know these black spots.
In fact, you can often be in the main street of Meeniyan with barely more than one bar of signal. Across the grassy spur to Foster, over the Hoddle hills, across Bass Coast to Phillip Island and right across West Gippsland, there are black spots. During the federal election campaign last year, the coalition announced $3 million to address mobile black spots across South Gippsland, West Gippsland and Bass Coast.
I was proud to be able to secure that commitment as a then candidate. It was great to announce that funding outside Kelly's Bakery in Korumburra. We had the local florist along too—a fantastic small business.
This issue isn't something I discovered in the last 12 months. I've been fighting for better telecommunications in the Gippsland region for a very long time. In fact, I initiated a digital connectivity master plan to tackle it years ago when I was at the Committee for Gippsland, and I've been fighting ever since.
These challenges go back a long time in our region. In fact, I recently came across a submission from the Sandy Point Community Group dating back to 2014. More than a decade ago, that community was telling the Commonwealth that Sandy Point had very poor mobile phone and wireless internet services, with reception non-existent in some locations.
I asked a local resident what her current lived experience was with the signal at Sandy Point today, 12 years later. Her description was simple—she said it was 'inconsistent'. More than a decade later, locals are still talking about the same fundamental problem.
Seven years ago, the South Gippsland Sentinel-Times, a fantastic local newspaper in my electorate, asked its readers about mobile black spots, and readers did not hold back. Go back and read those comments today and what strikes you isn't how much things have improved; it's how much things haven't changed. It's how many could have been written yesterday—different towns, different roads and different providers but the same frustration, the same dropped calls and the same unreliable service.
But there is one example that demonstrates better than any others why this matters, and that is Mirboo North. On 13 February 2024 a devastating storm tore through Mirboo North, in my electorate. Huge trees came down, homes and businesses were damaged, roads were blocked, powerlines were destroyed and, tragically, a local farmer lost his life.
I again want to put on the record my thanks and appreciation for the local volunteers and emergency services, who worked overtime for weeks and weeks to serve residents and get the town back on its feet. Telecommunications that day disappeared. The official major incidents report records that Mirboo North progressively lost NBN, mobile and fixed-line telecommunications.
Our community had just been hit by a catastrophic storm. People were checking whether their neighbours were still alive. Emergency services needed information.
Families outside town desperately wanted to know whether their loved ones were safe, where their loved ones were—and people couldn't make a phone call. ABC Gippsland later spoke to Mirboo North resident Ruth about that experience. When the backup battery at the telecommunications tower ran out and fallen trees prevented access, phone and internet services went with it.
More than 48 hours later, residents were still without power and telecommunications. Ruth described not being able to communicate, not knowing where her family members were or whether they were okay, and not knowing whether help was on its way. She also made an incredibly important point: emergency services cannot respond to what they don't know about.
South Gippsland Shire's subsequent submission to the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee makes the situation even more confronting. The council reported that almost every township in the shire lost mobile coverage during the storm, including access to triple zero. In Leongatha, telecommunications took approximately 32 hours to restore, and in Mirboo North many residents went without triple zero access for around seven days until neighbouring towns returned and provided intermittent coverage—seven days.
That's why I reject the idea that mobile black spots in regional Australia are just an inconvenience. They are a safety issue. They can be a life-and-death issue.
They are an emergency management issue. They're an economic issue. And, increasingly, they're an essential-infrastructure issue.
It was only when South Gippsland Shire was able to get a generator and Starlink into Mirboo North that residents could properly reconnect with each other and the outside world. That should concern every member of this House, because this bill, quite rightly, talks about protecting consumers when they dial triple zero. The need for reliable coverage was evident again with the recent Telstra software network outage.
I want to acknowledge Telstra CEO Vicki Brady for reaching out directly to one of my constituents who had been unable to connect with triple zero during the recent outage. I thank Ms Brady. Farmers increasingly depend on connected technology, and people simply need confidence that if something goes wrong on a farm, on a country road or during a natural disaster their phone will work.
Some regional families are paying for satellite services, such as Starlink, simply because they cannot have confidence in the telecommunications network available to them. In 2026 nobody should accept that a black spot is simply part of living in regional Australia. Telecommunications is a prime but not exclusive example of where regional communities like mine have been neglected by Labor governments.
Yesterday we saw yet another example on the Princes Freeway near Longwarry. Motorists were left with damaged vehicles after hitting significant potholes on one of the major roads in my electorate. After four years of the Albanese government, there hasn't been a single new dollar invested in road funding in the Gippsland region on the Princes Highway, and that is not good enough.
Our roads are crumbling. In a cost-of-living crisis, there have been tyres blown and rims wrecked, and people are left with bills at a time when they can least afford them. For the people I represent, this is becoming an all too familiar story.
The member for Narracan, Wayne Farnham, and I are fighting as part of a team to address this. Whether it's a phone that drops out when you need it or the road beneath your car deteriorating to the point that it damages your vehicle, regional Australians are entitled to ask a pretty simple question: where is the basic infrastructure we are paying for? Where is it?
Reliable regional telecommunications aren't a luxury. Safe roads aren't a luxury. The person standing beside their car with a damaged tyre on the Princes Freeway doesn't care about a political blame game.
They just want their problem fixed. They want the road fixed. The farmer standing in a paddock without mobile reception, he or she doesn't want to hear that the coverage map says they should have a signal.
They just want their phone to work. And the family trying to contact someone during an emergency doesn't care which department, regulator or government is responsible. They just need to be connected.
I support the strongest consumer safeguards contained in this bill. I support giving ACMA the ability to act swiftly against telecommunications companies that do the wrong thing. I support substantially stronger penalties where providers fail consumers.
But I will continue to make this point in this place: consumer protection must also mean protecting regional Australians who need to make a call. They are the farmer working alone; the small-business owner trying to take an order; the family driving between Korumburra and Leongatha; the resident at Sandy Point who has been talking about poor reception for more than a decade; and the family in Mirboo North standing among fallen trees and damaged homes after a catastrophic storm, desperately trying to find out whether their loved ones are safe.
Regional Australians do not expect special treatment. They expect the basics, they expect fairness and they expect to be able to connect—a phone that works, a road that's safe, infrastructure they can rely on. While our communities continue to deal with telecommunications black spots and deteriorating roads, it's worth remembering that this Albanese Labor government has not invested a single dollar in a new road infrastructure project in the electorate of Monash.
Regional Australians deserve better. There have been some contributions to the issue of emergency or disaster roaming in the context of these issues, and I want to make a couple of points. Of course, the majority of industry participants are moving towards that goal in a few months time, and I welcome that.
As someone who represents a disaster prone regional electorate, I'm supportive of that principle. I would add that moving ahead of industry led regulation on that particular issue to mandate roaming provisions in an emergency or disaster restrained setting would be optimal, because, while many telcos are moving towards that goal, not all will be taking up that aspirational invitation.
I also want to welcome the announcement by the ACCC to investigate regional communications levels, while also looking at radio access networks. The ACCC has completed at least three inquiries since the 2000s, and I would note that, each time, it has concluded on the issue of mandated domestic roaming that it would present a disincentive to invest in regional communications.
That is just a fact. The current inquiry will, of course, be a fact finding mission, so I will not pre-empt the outcome of that. At face value, there are two main concerns raised on the topic of mandated domestic roaming.
Shareholder wealth of one company invested in its own infrastructure should not be arbitrarily shared with a competitor, if indeed all of that investment in that infrastructure has come from that private company. The second point is the market signal that it sends on investment, particularly in regions like mine. I won't name the company, but I'm still offended by a telco ad filmed in the middle of the outback somewhere, where the actor essentially says: 'Come with us.
We can offer you a cheaper plan because we're not wasting money on investing in woop woop areas like this.' That really illustrates my point. I don't want the telco companies that do invest in regional Australia to be penalised for doing so; I want them to be encouraged and incentivised to do so. Regional communications is a major issue for my electorate.
It is a safety issue. It is an educational issue. It is an equality of outcome challenge for students at high school, university and TAFE for them to be able to complete the study and training opportunities that they engage with.
Too often, I've spoken to a small-business owner who has said, 'I just missed that order because my phone dropped out.' That is not good enough. I firmly believe your postcode shouldn't determine your potential, and I will fight for better regional communications in my electorate of Monash. I will fight for better roads.
I will fight for better healthcare outcomes. This is a seriously important issue for constituents in the Latrobe Valley, in Bass Coast, in South Gippsland and in West Gippsland. You deserve better; I'll stand up for you, and so will the coalition, to make sure you get the investment and services you deserve.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Lawrence ): The original question was that this bill be now read a second time. To this the honourable member for Lindsay has moved an amendment that all words after 'That' be omitted with a view to substituting other words. The immediate question is that the amendment be agreed to.
Question unresolved. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: As it is necessary to resolve this question to enable further questions to be considered in relation to this bill, in accordance with standing order 195 this bill will be returned to the House for further consideration.