In November 2013, the Minister for Communications called for identification of areas for possible regulatory reform as part of the Federal Government’s policy to streamline the impact of regulation on business, government and the community.
Our response presents the consumer perspective on deregulation in telecommunications by:
- highlighting the importance of consumer protections in supporting a fair market that is sustainable in the long term;
- urging the Government to ensure that rationalisation of regulation maintains consumer confidence in the market;
- noting that this approach is consistent with a key underpinning of the telecommunications regulatory regime - the long term interests of consumers, and
- noting the importance of ongoing consumer consultation in any regulatory review.
We acknowledged the need for timely regulatory review and audit in a rapidly changing sector such as communications and identified areas for reform in the short term, as well as flagged a number of areas for further discussion that may warrant longer term reform.
We also called for a broad and long-term assessment towards measuring the cost of regulation, that gives equal weight to the benefits of removing or maintaining regulation, as well as the costs to the community as a whole.
