Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2010 — In Committee — Keep items and divisions unchanged

The majority voted in favour of a motion "that the following items in schedule 1 stand as printed [i.e. remain unchanged]: items 1 to 6, items 11 to 15, item 18, item 21, item 24, item 25, items 28 and 29, divisions 3, 4 and 6 in item 30, and part 10 in item 31". These items and divisions related to spectrum and pay TV, the disallowance of instruments and competition. This motion was put in response to an earlier motion to oppose these items and divisions put by Liberal Senator Ian Macdonald.(Read Senator Macdonald's explanation of his motion and the associated debate here, after 4:29 pm. )

Background to the bill

This bill was introduced following the lapse of the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2009 and relates to the regulation of consumer protection, competition and licensing in telecommunications markets. While substantially the same as the earlier bill, it includes some additional provisions.

According to the bills digest, significant changes made by this bill include:

• improving the conditions for competition in telecommunications markets by requiring Telstra to be structurally or functionally separated
• making the telecommunications access regime less susceptible to deliberate delay and obstruction
• removing a technical impediment to the operation of the anti-competitive conduct regime applying to telecommunications markets
• clarifying the universal service obligation (USO) and customer service guarantee (CSG) to make it more enforceable
• extending the obligation to provide priority assistance to those with life threatening conditions to service providers other than Telstra, and
• enabling breaches of civil penalty provisions - including some concerning the USO and the CSG - to be dealt with by issuing infringement notices.(More information about the bill is available in its bills digest.)

With these measures, the bill seeks to address the issues that result from the monopoly caused by Telstra's vertically and horizontally integrated telecommunications network.