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IN THE NEWS: ACCAN in Canberra to lobby for scams prevention changes, Optus fined $12 million relating to 2023 outage and PM confirms social media ban for under 16's
CEO MESSAGE: This week, I joined MPs and consumer advocates from around the country in Canberra to urge the government to make important changes to scams prevention legislation which is currently before parliament.
Our case is simple. Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones has designed a scams prevention framework that lets banks, social media companies and telcos off too lightly, and places too much onus on scams victims. As drafted, scammed Australians would have to pursue compensation through a lengthy and expensive appeals process which could take several years. A presumption of reimbursement – as legislated in the UK – would provide scams victims with fairness and a speedy resolution, while putting more onus on corporations to detect and prevent scams in the first place. Allegra Spender asked of the Assistant Treasurer in question time on Thursday if under his Bill consumers are responsible for and have power to prevent scam losses, and if not if will he take action to make sure banks pay for losses?
I thank the Senators and Members for their support on this vital issue.
In major news which broke on Friday 8 November, the ACMA has levelled a $12 million fine against Optus for breaches of Triple Zero rules during the nationwide outage in November 2023. Optus failed to conduct 369 welfare checks on consumers who tried but failed to reach 000 services during the outage. It marks the close of a horror period for the telco, who this time last week was the subject of court action by the ACCC due to alleged widespread misselling to vulnerable consumers.
And on Tuesday of this week, we watched on with interest as our industry’s key regulator and Department appeared before the Senate during Budget Estimates – an important accountability tool for government and the public service.
On Thursday (7 November) we received news that the Prime Minister intends to bring before National Cabinet legislation to ban children under the age of 16 from using social media. This will be followed by the introduction of a Bill in parliament to implement the ban. The proposal has received wide support, including from the Premiers of South Australia and NSW, opposition leader Peter Dutton, and Shadow Communications Minister David Coleman.
ACCAN Deputy CEO Dr Gareth Downing and I appeared in front of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security last Friday to put forward the consumer perspective on the Cyber Security Legislative Package. We support the government’s package – the introduction of mandatory security standards for interconnected devices is vital to helping us all remain cyber-secure. We encouraged the Committee to include stop and recall powers in the legislation, rather than create a staged enforcement approach, which in our view offers reduced protections for consumers.
The shutdown of 3G networks now concluded. Pleasingly, I have noticed positive feedback coming from our members and the public about connectivity quality improvements. Nevertheless, I do encourage you to get in touch with your telco or with our team if you are experiencing problems with reduced connectivity – we want to hear your stories!
Carol Bennett
Chief Executive Officer
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Our CEO Carol Bennett joined MPs and consumer advocates in Canberra on Tuesday to urge the government to bring in mandatory reimbursement for scams victims. While the current draft scams prevention legislation is a step in the right direction, there is a better way forward - one which puts Australians first. A presumption of reimbursement has been established in the UK – and we should join them in preferencing the interests of consumers over the interests of banks and large platforms. Thank you to Senator David Pocock, Kate Chaney, Monique Ryan, Allegra Spender, Zoe Daniel, Helen Haines, Zali Stegall and Sophie Scamps for supporting this vital call. [Joint press release]
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The ACMA has announced a $12 million fine to Optus for breaches of emergency call rules which occurred during the widespread outage of November 2023. The regulator has found that Optus failed to follow up on the welfare of nearly 370 customers who attempted to reach emergency services during the outage once it was resolved, as they are obligated to do. Triple Zero is a lynchpin of public safety. Telcos should ensure it is available to the largest extent possible, and downtime is at an absolute minimum. The ACMA has also found that Optus failed in the management of its networks in a number of areas, and that the outage was ‘preventable’. [ACCAN]
This news breaks as the fallout from Optus unconscionable sales scandal continues. Readers will have noted last week’s news that the ACCC is taking Optus to court over 429 instances of unconscionable dealings with consumers – cases which mainly relate to people who are First Nations, low-income or who have a disability. In this article, our CEO Carol Bennett is quoted as calling this “a display of gross misconduct”. In contrast to industry body Comms Alliance, ACCAN view is that this conduct demonstrates the ineffectiveness of the current communications consumer protections regime and should spur fundamental changes in the way our sector is regulated. [ITWire]
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A year on from the Optus outage, ACCAN welcomes the progress that the Albanese government has made towards accepting recommendations of the Bean review and moving to direct new, enforceable industry standards to improve communication with customers, emergency services and government during outages as well as improving customer complaints systems.
Other measures of note include updating the Emergency Call Service Determination to improve the resilience and functioning of the Triple Zero service, requiring telcos to check that mobile phones connected to their network are able to access Triple Zero and provision for redundancy options into backup telecommunications systems in their operations to ensure the continuation of critical services in the event of future network outages.
The government also this week launched a new community education campaign to assist families, businesses and other organisations to build their resilience against future outages. [Minister Rowland]
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Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland last month announced that Australian consumers facing domestic and family violence will receive better protections through direct regulation. ACCAN participated in a piece by CHOICE- linked above - which highlights why this change is so important, and what you can expect once it is established. We want to ensure that consumers in vulnerable situations are not made to feel more distressed or isolated due to interactions with their provider. [CHOICE]
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At Senate Estimates on Tuesday 5 November, senior staff from the ACMA appeared before members of the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee. Senator Pocock raised questions about why the ACMA had only issued fines totalling $10 million to telcos during a 13-year period – when misbehaviour is seemingly persistent in the sector. In defending the regulator, the ACMA Chair pointed out that there are a range of deterrent and warning actions that the ACMA has undertaken that do not involve fines. As made clear in a recent report by the Centre for Media Transition, commissioned by ACCAN, it is important that a enforcement actions taken by the regulator are transparent and publicly available. [ACCAN]
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has committed to legislating a ban on social media for children under 16 years of age, after discussions with National Cabinet on Thursday. Key further details about the policy have not been made public; it is still unclear how severe fines or punishment for platform non-compliance will be, and how age is to be verified on platforms. The PM did clarify that children and parents would not be fined for finding ways around the age restriction. Writing to a recent inquiry into social media in Australian society, ACCAN stressed the need for strong privacy protections for consumer data, and an ombudsman scheme covering digital platforms. [The Guardian]
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A new report has found that Aussie Broadband customers have the highest levels of customer service satisfaction of all major telcos. The report was based on 111,575 assessments by CSBA – a customer experience benchmarking firm - of 208 Australian contact centres. Telstra ranked second in the report, followed by iiNet, Vodafone and TPG. [Mi3]
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WebNews #682
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Tel: (02) 9288 4000
Email: media@accan.org.au
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