This is the second time I've spoken on this bill, because it's one of those matters that we considered prior to the election, but it wasn't able to be dealt with by the parliament at that time. That's a shame, because this is about trying to bring in enhanced protections for consumers. I refer to the comment from, really, the peak communications consumer body, ACCAN, who have welcomed the fact that this bill is now being debated a second time—keeping in mind that it had passed through this place and it had landed in the Senate. As they say, it's time to finish the job of delivering long-awaited powers for the regulator to crack down on telcos that cause consumer harm. This is something that ACCAN and other consumer organisations have long called for. They wanted stronger powers and penalties to be available to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, ACMA. I note the comment of CEO of ACCAN, Carol Bennett:

The legislation addresses persistent gaps that have left many consumers exposed to harm.

She is absolutely right. This is a bill that really plugs some of the gaps that have allowed consumers to be very vulnerable to actions or the lack of action by the telecommunications businesses, and it provides more teeth for ACMA to be able to tackle those.

Let's look at some of those things. We're talking about telecommunications, which is an absolutely essential connector that we all need. We need it for our families; when I was running a small business, I absolutely needed reliable telecommunications to run my business; and our communities need it, particularly when there are disasters. Goodness knows that my electorate of Macquarie—the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury—has experienced more than its fair share of natural disasters, where connectivity has absolutely been key. It isn't just during the crisis that it can be life saving to have connection; it's following the crisis, in the speed with which things are restored that can make such a difference. We know that Australians deserve of a telecommunications system that is fair, accountable and built on trust. Remember that most of our mobile phone and landlines—for those of us who still have a landline—and a big portion of our internet is privately owned and privately operated, underpinned by the NBN, a government-owned agency. All the mobile stuff we do is all in the private sector these days.

This bill equips the telecommunications industry regulator, ACMA, with the tools and powers that it desperately needs to protect consumers from poor and harmful telecommunications practices. Significantly there are very big increases in the penalties that can be applied. For instance, it increases by 40 times civil penalties that the Federal Court can issue for breaches of industry codes and industry standards. We're not just doubling something. We're not just boosting it a bit. What we're saying is that this needs to be much bigger—40 times larger. The cap is now up from $250,000 to nearly $10 million. It's a shame that we need to have such a big stick there to make the telcos do the right thing, but our conclusion is that we absolutely need to have much stronger powers and much greater capacity to act when they do the wrong thing.

This bill also modernises the civil penalties framework so that the Federal Court has the option to issue fines for regulatory breaches. The fines can be $10 million or three times the benefit gained for the regulatory breach—so there's a very clear connection between the breach and the financial gain that the telco received, and the penalty will relate to that—or a fine of 30 per cent of turnover. These are much more significant penalties.

This bill also expands and clarifies the authority of the Minister for Communications to increase infringement notice penalties that ACMA can issue for breaches of industry codes, industry standards and service provider determinations. Another aspect of the bill is around establishing what we call a carriage service provider registration scheme. Right now, we don't necessarily know who all the carriage service providers are, and this is about increasing the visibility of the CSPs who operate in the market so that we can stop the operation of dodgy carriage service providers who pose an unacceptable risk to consumers. Registering them means we have visibility, which means we have the capacity to act much more effectively when issues arise.

Another thing this bill does is make the telecommunications industry codes directly enforceable by ACMA. Really, the aim of that is to incentivise industry compliance and enable the regulator to take swift action to address consumer harm. These reforms will ensure that ACMA is an empowered and effective regulator and that appropriate structures are in place to drive better behaviour by telecommunications companies. This is not something that has just suddenly been needed; this has been needed for some time. I think every member of parliament here would have dealt with constituents who've had issues with telcos where those issues have not been adequately dealt with and addressed by the telecommunications provider. I would hope this entire parliament realises that this is urgent, and I hope the Senate realises that too.

Since coming to office, the Albanese government has focused very heavily on lifting the standards for this sector. There has been a new industry standard requiring telecommunications companies to provide adequate support to consumers experiencing financial hardship. We've also had a new industry standard requiring telecommunications companies to support and assist consumers experiencing domestic, sexual and family violence, which came into force on 1 July, and I just want to share some of the details about that. The sorts of things that are in that standard, which can make such a difference to a woman and her children who are escaping family violence, are things that will require the telco providers to be involved, to stand up and act and to keep victims-survivors safe, including reversing disconnection, suspension and restriction of services when a domestic and family violence safety risk is raised by a customer. It will also ensure that they're only contacting people using agreed methods and that they're hiding sensitive information, like calls to 1800RESPECT, and preventing those things from appearing on bills. That can actually save lives. The changes we've made also ensure staff are appropriately trained to recognise and support victims-survivors. People need that, because you don't automatically know what to do when someone makes a disclosure, and that training of telco staff is really important.

The changes also ensure that victims-survivors will never be asked to engaged with the alleged perpetrator to resolve their telco issues. Again, that's about dignity. That's about ensuring you're not exacerbating a situation. There are a number of measures to prevent victims-survivors from being retraumatised, by not having to repeat their story multiple times or provide extensive evidence of abuse. Then what follows that is giving customers a greater say in managing the security and privacy of their accounts. So I'm very pleased that the first tranche of that came into effect from 1 July. That new industry standard fits with this piece of legislation as one of several things we're doing to lift the standards and to make our telecommunications sector responsive to consumer needs.

Another area that we've focused on in telecommunications that aligns with the bill that we're discussing here today is in the changes to the Competition and Consumer Act, which we amended to introduce consistent obligations of the telecommunications banking and digital platform sectors to prevent, detect and disrupt scams. So we're not seeing the telecommunications sector in isolation from banking when it comes to scams. Many a time, people will find that it is a text message on their phone that can be the trigger or the first attempt of a scam. It might be something on their social media. It might be an email. It's coming through a carriage service provider. It's coming to them, and, at every step of the scam process where scammers use social media, phone or email, where they then get people to dip into their banking, all those sectors have to be responsible for it, and that's what our legislation has done.

I referred earlier to ACCAN and its support for the changes that we are making today. I note that they've thanked the government for putting consumers first. In their view, the reforms better align telecommunications with other essential services like energy and banking by strengthening enforcement, lifting penalties and making industry codes enforceable.

You can see the consistency of the approach that we're taking in this way. We're saying to the sectors, 'You all have shared responsibility here.' This bill, in particular, lifts those consumer standards so that they are consistent. I do note that ACCAN highlights that 'new powers are only as good as the regulator who wields them'. Like ACCAN, we fully expect ACMA to act quickly and transparently when providers fall short, and we are confident they will do that.

As Australians, we rely very heavily on phone and internet services every day. When something goes wrong, it does need to be dealt with quickly. Previously, there has been a gap in doing that. We recognise that there are a whole lot of things we need to do to expand the access to telecommunications. One of our policies—I think it's important to be reminded of this—is to have a universal outdoor mobile obligation on the telecommunications providers. That's going to require the mobile carriers to provide access to mobile voice and SMS almost everywhere in Australia. I'm particularly keen to see this because I represent an electorate that has mountains and valleys. It's got rugged, World Heritage terrain where it's easy to get lost and, if you do get lost, really hard to make a phone call.

The universal outdoor mobile obligation, the UOMO—it's very catchy—will ensure that up to five million square kilometres of new competitive outdoor mobile coverage will come into existence, including more than 37,000 kilometres on regional roads. It is so important for people travelling through the regions or living in the regions to have coverage as they drive. Whether it's in national parks, out on the farm or out in quite remote areas, outdoor coverage will be accessible almost anywhere where Australians can see the sky. Our objectives in doing this are to expand the triple 0 access for all Australians right across the nation. My community is only about 95 kilometres from Sydney, but this will potentially save lives because people travelling on very challenging roads where it is difficult to get a signal, like Bells Line of Road or Putty Road, will be able to call for help.

It will expand outdoor voice and SMS coverage into existing mobile black spots that are really challenging to tackle because of the geography. It will improve the availability of mobile signals during disasters and power outages. These are the sorts of things that we are prioritising, always putting consumers first. This bill looks at protections for consumers. We have separately looked at expanding access to services for consumers. We have got more protections for victims-survivors of domestic and family violence, and I am very proud to be part of a government that says the consumer comes first. The services exist to serve consumers, and how they are treated in the process is absolutely vital. I commend this bill to the House.