Peak communications consumer body ACCAN welcomes the reintroduction to Parliament today of the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025.
The bill passed the House of Representatives before the federal election in May and has now been reintroduced to finish the job of delivering long-awaited powers for the regulator to crack down on telcos that cause consumer harm.
ACCAN and allied consumer organisations (the Fair Call Coalition) have long called for stronger powers and penalties to be available to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
ACCAN CEO Carol Bennett said the legislation addresses persistent gaps that have left many consumers exposed to harm.
"We thank the Government for putting consumers first. These reforms better align telecommunications with other essential services like energy and banking by strengthening enforcement, lifting penalties and making industry codes enforceable," Ms Bennett said.
"However, new powers are only as good as the regulator who wields them, and we expect ACMA to act quickly and transparently when providers fall short."
Ms Bennett urged all parliamentarians to pass the TECS bill without delay.
"Australians rely on phone and internet services every day. Swift passage of this bill will promote accountability, transparency and compliance across the sector and help rebuild trust," Ms Bennett said.
ACMA has been considering whether to register the Telecommunications Consumer Protection Code since May 2025, after years of feet dragging by industry and the regulator. This is despite the TIO, ACCC and community sector all agreeing that the proposed Code provides inappropriate community safeguards and is incapable of registration.
The self-regulatory Code provides inadequate and inappropriate protections – with the Chair of the ACMA conceding as early as 2024 that "the draft falls substantially short of what the ACMA had expected" and that "the response also fails to provide the assurance we had sought around the industry's willingness to commit to substantially uplift obligations, particularly around responsible selling" in documents revealed under a Freedom of Information disclosure.
Ms Bennett said that, after years of drafting and consultation, the Code still fails consumers on too many fronts and is incapable of registration.
"Reforms brought in by the TECS Bill will make a difference – but the regulator has to act to make these reforms work by rejecting the TCP Code which provides inappropriate community safeguards."
"ACMA can't rely on successive ministers to do their job for them, by directing them to regulate critical protections as has been the case for domestic and family violence, financial hardship and customer communications during outages."
ACCAN looks forward to working with policymakers, regulators, industry and community organisations to ensure the effective implementation of these reforms.
About us:
The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) is Australia's peak communication consumer organisation. The operation of ACCAN is made possible by funding provided by the Commonwealth of Australia under section 593 of the Telecommunications Act 1997. This funding is recovered from charges on telecommunications carriers.
