Consultation on draft Telecommunications (Infringement Notice Penalties) Determination 2022

Have your say on a draft of the Telecommunications (Infringement Notice Penalties) Determination 2022.

Why we want your input

We want to know your views on whether this draft instrument, which proposes higher penalties for some regulatory breaches relating to fixed phone and payphone services, should be made in the form proposed.

How you can voice your opinion

You can review the draft instrument and draft explanatory statement below and provide your comments in a written submission. Your submission can be as short or long as your like.

What will be the outcome of this consultation?

Your input will help inform Government decisions about the draft instrument.

The Issue

The Telecommunications (Infringement Notice Penalties) Determination 2012 (the 2012 Determination) set higher infringement notice penalties for regulatory breaches relating to fixed phone and payphone services. We are seeking stakeholder views on making a new Determination to replace the 2012 Determination, which has now ceased.

The Telecommunications Act 1997 enables the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to take a range of enforcement action if it considers an individual or a body corporate has contravened civil penalty provisions.

By default, an infringement notice issued to a body corporate by ACMA is 60 penalty units (or $13,320 given a penalty unit is currently set at $222). However, the ACMA can issue an infringement notice to a body corporate with a different penalty amount determined by the Minister for Communications.

The 2012 Determination was used to specify higher infringement notice penalties for breaches involving Customer Service Guarantee (CSG) benchmarks, payphone benchmarks, rules about the location of payphones, and ACMA directions about the removal of payphones.

A draft replacement Determination and draft Explanatory Statement are provided below for stakeholder comment. These largely reflect the 2012 documents except for minor legal edits and the removal of references to mobile premium services (MPS) rules that no longer exist.

The department welcomes written comments from interested people. Submitters are asked to provide comments on:

the need for such an instrument
the proposed wording and structure of the draft instrument.

If you have questions, comments or feedback on this consultation process, please email us at usb@communications.gov.au.

Relevant documentation

Please note: The Crimes Amendment (Penalty Unit) Bill 2022 is currently before the Parliament. It proposes to increase the value of Commonwealth penalty unit from $222 to $275 from 1 January 2023. The documents will be updated as needed to reflect this Bill.

If you wish to make a confidential submission, please ensure your submission is clearly labelled as 'confidential' and ensure all confidential material provided within the submission is highlighted or otherwise clearly identified. Submitters may also wish to prepare both public and confidential versions of their submission. Submissions can be uploaded or emailed to usb@communications.gov.au by 11.59 pm on Friday 16 December 2022.

Outcome

Public consultation on the draft Determination was open for four weeks from 18 November to 16 December 2022. The Department received four public submissions, from Telstra, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) and the Consumer Action Law Centre. These submissions are available below.

After considering feedback from stakeholders, the Minister for Communications, the Hon Michelle Rowland MP, made the Determination as proposed on 21 December 2022. The Determination commenced from 23 December 2022, the day after it was registered, as specified in the Determination. The Determination and Explanatory Statement are available on the Federal Register of Legislation.