25th Nov 2010, 9:06 PM – Senate Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2010 — In Committee — Transparency

The majority voted against amendments introduced by Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham, which means that they were rejected. Senator Birmingham explained that his amendments would have ensured "that any ministerial direction given to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) regarding the criteria for acceptance of a functional separation or a structural separation [of Telstra] would be a disallowable instrument and therefore subject to the scrutiny of this place and of course the other place".(Read Senator Birmingham's full explanation of his amendments and the associated debate here, after 8:48 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. 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.

Although this bill is substantially the same as the earlier bill of the same name, it does have some additional provisions.