Aussie Comms Minister seeks input on consumer representation

Stuart Corner
Monday, 07 April 2008 12:03

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

Communications minister, Stephen Conroy, has invited all stakeholders in the telecoms market to a forum in Canberra to discuss ways in which consumer representation in telecommunications policy development and in the industry in general can be improved.

The move follows a promise made by Conroy in his speech to the Atug conference in March   when he said: "I want to look at ways to give consumers a more powerful voice in the development of telco policy and in particular in industry codes.

Announcing the forum, to be held on 1 May Conroy, said: "I want to give consumers a more powerful and effective voice in the development of telecommunications policy...I am...interested in exploring a range of options that will provide the strong voice consumers need. This could be along the lines of a federated peak body and substructure as proposed by the Productivity Commission in its draft report, Review of Australia's Consumer Policy Framework (December 2007)."

In its draft report the Commission recommended that The Australian Government should provide modest additional funding to support: specified research on consumer policy issues, distributed on a contestable basis; the basic operating costs of a representative national peak consumer body; and such additional funding should be subject to appropriate guidelines and governance arrangements to help ensure that it is used effectively.

However in telecommunications consumer involvement in industry self regulation is a issue of particular concern. In his Atug address, Conroy said: "If industry self regulation is to remain a viable form of regulation for telcos it is incumbent on the industry to ensure that the interests of consumers continue to be adequately represented and protected. Unfortunately there are signs that the interests of consumer are falling behind in the current environment of increasing competition and product complexity."

These initiatives come at a time of considerable dissatisfaction among consumer bodies with the current telecommunications self regulatory regime. A comment posted in response to iTWire's report of Conroy's Atug speech indicated that at least one consumer body is deeply unhappy with its ability to participate in the development of telecommunication codes and standards. CONTINUED