Aussie Comms Minister seeks input on consumer representation

Stuart Corner
Monday, 07 April 2008 13:03

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

In a lengthy posting, Nicole Lawder, CEO of the Deafness Forum of Australia, said that her group had recently written to Conroy expressing a number of concerns about consumer involvement in Communication Alliance: the peak telecommunication industry body which undertakes development of numerous technical standards and codes of practice for telecommunications industry players. Many of these are registered by the ACMA making conformance to them mandatory. She detailed a number of specific issues on which the Forum was unhappy with Comms Alliance processes.

Asked to respond to Lawder's comments, Comms Alliance CEO, Anne Hurley, said: "The issues raised are largely related to the processes used in the development of codes and standards as well as our consultative mechanisms. There are a multitude of processes and models that can be debated, but the focus of our work is outcomes. As Minister Conroy recently pointed out, development of codes and standards has become exceedingly time consuming. We share his concern and are keen to explore ways of achieving outcomes more quickly and efficiently, while maintaining ample opportunity for consumer engagement."

The Productivity Commission's review of Australia's Consumer Policy Framework. It was announced by then treasurer, Peter Costello, in December 2006. He noted that it would be the first substantial review of Australia's consumer policy framework since 1984 and said that the Commission had been asked to report on "ways to improve the framework to assist consumers to meet current and future challenges...[and] on ways to improve the harmonisation and coordination of consumer policy and its development and administration across jurisdictions in Australia, as well as ways to avoid regulatory duplication and inconsistency."

The Commission issued its draft report  in December 2007. In a response to that draft, Choice (formerly the Australian Consumers Association) took issue with the policy, enshrined in the Telecommunications Act, to rely as much as possible on industry self regulation. Choice called for the creation of a guide for the development of industry codes that should include "guidance to policy makers about the conditions when codes are or are not appropriate (eg they are less appropriate if only partial industry coverage can be achieved) and the best legislative framework for supporting codes."CONTINUED