Shadow Portfolio — 1 April 2026

The Member for Fairfax, Mr Ted O'Brien, used his House time on 1 April 2026 for two distinct purposes: a procedural tribute to a major judicial figure and a substantive second-reading contribution on telecommunications consumer protection reform.

Mr O'Brien opened by marking the death of former Chief Justice Sir Anthony Mason, who died on 17 March shortly before his 101st birthday [TA-260401-house-6ae0f5f9fd41:s002]. He traced Sir Anthony's career from appointment as Solicitor-General in 1964 through elevation to the High Court in 1972 and service as Chief Justice from 1987 to 1995. Mr O'Brien highlighted two defining contributions of the Mason Court: the 1992 recognition of an implied freedom of political communication in the Constitution, and the landmark Mabo judgment recognising native title in the same year [TA-260401-house-6ae0f5f9fd41:s002].

He then turned to local matters, describing a community crowdfunding initiative on the Sunshine Coast that has raised $10,000 to fund the Sunny Coast Sleeper — a nine-pod bus providing overnight accommodation for homeless people in Nambour [TA-260401-house-6ae0f5f9fd41:s106].

The substantive parliamentary work for the day came in the second-reading debate on the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025, where Mr O'Brien announced coalition support for the legislation. The bill introduces three structural changes to the telecommunications regulatory framework. First, it establishes a mandatory registration scheme requiring all carriage service providers to register with the Australian Communications and Media Authority, bringing an estimated 1,500 currently unregistered providers into formal ACMA visibility [TA-260401-house-6ae0f5f9fd41:s045].

Second, Schedule 2 makes registered industry codes directly enforceable by ACMA, abolishing the existing two-step compliance-then-enforcement process that has allowed providers to breach scam-call and emergency-call obligations without incurring financial penalties [TA-260401-house-6ae0f5f9fd41:s045]. Third, the bill lifts maximum penalties for industry code breaches from $250,000 to $10 million, with a framework permitting penalties calculated against the benefit obtained from the breach or the provider's turnover — and exceeding $10 million where warranted [TA-260401-house-6ae0f5f9fd41:s045].

Mr O'Brien grounded the coalition's support in recent ACMA enforcement data: 19 formal warnings, 16 directions to comply, four enforceable undertakings, and infringement notices totalling close to $16 million since January 2024. He drew particular attention to seven notices for emergency call database breaches and ten directions for scam-call code compliance in 2024 — none of which produced financial penalties under the current two-step regime [TA-260401-house-6ae0f5f9fd41:s045].

This data framed the coalition's position not as uncritical endorsement of government legislation but as a policy-driven acceptance that the existing framework has demonstrably failed to deter non-compliance.

Mr O'Brien also noted broad stakeholder alignment behind the reforms. The Australian Telecommunications Alliance has called for direct code enforcement since 2023. The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission have each advocated for civil penalty reform to bring telecommunications penalties into line with those in energy, banking, competition, and consumer law.

The bill also introduces a cybersecurity incident-reporting obligation for all providers. The confluence of industry, consumer advocacy, and regulatory bodies behind the same reforms strengthens the coalition's stated rationale for support.