In December 2019, ACCAN submitted to the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee consultation on the telecommunications legislative reform package. The consultation focused on two Bills under consideration by the Federal Parliament – the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer) Bill and the Telecommunications (Regional Broadband Scheme) Charge Bill.

ACCAN’s submission argued that both bills should be passed by Federal Parliament for the following reasons:

• The introduction of the statutory infrastructure provider obligations set out in the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer) Bill is particularly important for consumers as it underpins guaranteed access to the National Broadband Network beyond the end of the rollout period. Implementing this critical reform is essential to ensuring that all Australians have access to broadband services, irrespective of where they live.
• The Bill also provides for the Minister to determine service performance standards for NBN and other networks which are an important element for accountability and service delivery suited to the needs of consumers and businesses across the country.
• The Telecommunications (Regional Broadband Scheme) Charge Bill creates a funding mechanism for non-NBN fixed broadband networks to contribute to subsidising NBN’s loss making regional services delivered over SkyMuster satellite and fixed wireless. We support the establishment of the Regional Broadband Scheme in providing an ongoing revenue base to for essential regional, rural and remote telecommunications services.

Download: ACCAN submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications Legislation78.24 KB
Download: ACCAN submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications Legislation443.74 KB