No 12: 9 July 2024

Submission in response to the Statutory Review of the Online Safety Act 2021 Issues Paper

The extensive Communications Alliance submission in response to the Issues Paper reiterates our members’ willingness to engage with all relevant stakeholders on the important objectives to keep Australians safe online through a practical and holistic online safety and privacy framework that harmonises with other legislative and regulatory frameworks. It also highlights a number of concerns with the current Online Safety Act 2021 (OSA), the subordinate instruments that are attached to it and its interrelation with other legislative processes. Our concerns include:

   
• Concern with the concurrence of a multitude of interrelated processes, including in the areas of online safety, privacy, digital identity, AI, and social media and digital platforms in Australia more broadly;
   
• The need to ensure the review considers the long term efficacy, flexibility, complementarity and other factors, not only of the Online Safety Act (OSA) but also of the broader regulatory framework for online safety and other adjacent regulatory frameworks, including their alignments with international approaches;
   
• Concern with the persistent and substantial delegation of key concepts to subordinate legislation and/or discretionary interpretative powers of the regulator;
   
• Concern with the lack of a risk-based and proportionate approach to the OSA and Basic Online Safety Expectations (BOSE) more broadly;
   
• Cautioning against importing new regulatory mechanisms from other jurisdictions without full consideration of the impact and effectiveness of the broad range of existing obligations;
   
• Concern with the application of the National Classification Scheme (NCS) to the online environment, particularly at scale in relation to user-generated content;
   
• The need to ensure that any proposal relating to age-verification/assurance ought to strike an appropriate balance of efficiency, effectiveness and the impact/risk of harm vectors;
   
• Querying the need for the proposals to expand the types of behaviour and materials regulated under the OSA without appropriate parliamentary debate in relation to these specific types of materials;
   
• A number of considerations in relation to a potential ‘best interests of the child’ approach;
   
• The need to ensure that the Online Content Scheme of the OSA allows for an effective and efficient development of industry codes; and
   
• The need to clarify the interaction between the OSA and the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (TIA Act).

The Future use of Radiocommunications Spectrum

The ACMA has recently completed Stage 2 of their expiring spectrum licence (ESL) work program, seeking information from incumbent licensees and prospective alternative licensees about current or potential future use of the spectrum, and how it promotes the long-term public interest.
 
The Satellite Services Working Group (SSWG) provided a submission to the ACMA highlighting that Australia will benefit enormously from direct-to-device applications - supporting regional, rural, and remote connectivity. The benefits will include increased resilience to telecommunications infrastructure and enhanced availability of communications services supporting emergency and disaster responses.
 
In addition, the SSWG recommends that spectrum licensing needs to be carefully considered in the light of its impact on the current era of highly innovative developments – needing careful attention to establish relevant coordination and sharing within and adjacent to the ESL bands especially in regard to satellites services that have a long lifetime.

New Member

Communications Alliance is pleased to welcome the following new member:

Current Consultations

Below is a list of currently open telecommunications-related consultations being conducted by Government and other organisations that provide an opportunity for you to have your say.

Communications Alliance members interested in contributing to an industry submission (if one is being developed in response to a specific consultation) should contact us.