EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

 

Select Legislative Instrument 2010 No. 19

 

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Broadband, Communications

and the Digital Economy

 

Telecommunications Act 1997

 

Telecommunications Amendment Regulations 2010 (No. 1)

 

Section 594 of the Telecommunications Act 1997 (the Act) provides, in part, that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing matters required or permitted to be prescribed by the Act, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

 

The Act provides, inter alia, for the confidentiality of personal information (s.276). The integrated public number database (IPND) contains personal information. The IPND is an industry-wide database of all residential and business phone numbers (both listed and unlisted) and associated subscriber information such as the customer’s name and address. Section 276 of the Act prohibits disclosure or use by carriers, carriage service providers or their contractors, of (inter alia) information contained in the IPND. However, a number of exceptions to this prohibition are specified in the Act, including circumstances specified in the regulations (subsection 292(1)).

 

The purpose of the amending Regulations is to omit regulation 5.1B from the Telecommunications Regulations 2001 (the Principal Regulations) as it is now considered redundant. Regulation 5.1B was originally inserted into the Principal Regulations to permit disclosure or use of information contained in an IPND for emergency warning purposes, on an interim basis, until the Act was amended. The Act was amended by the Telecommunications Amendment (Integrated Public Number Database) Act 2009 on 26 March 2009 to allow for the IPND information to be disclosed by the IPND Manager to persons specified in a legislative instrument under subsection 275B(2) of the Act, for purposes connected with the provision of emergency warnings (including for the reasonable testing of such arrangements) (section 285A of the Act).

 

Subsection 275B(2) of the Act gives the Attorney-General the power to make a legislative instrument specifying the offices and persons to whom IPND information can be disclosed for the purposes set out in the Act. Subsection 275B(5) requires the Attorney-General to consult with the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (the Minister) before making such an instrument. After consultation with the Minister, the Attorney-General made the Telecommunications (Data for Emergency Warning Systems) Instrument 2009 (the subsection 275B(2) instrument), which commenced on 9 September 2009.

 

The Attorney-General had recommended that regulation 5.1B be repealed when appropriate arrangements are in place under the Act to enable access to IPND information for the purposes of issuing emergency warnings and for the reasonable testing of such arrangements. The Attorney-General’s Department has since advised the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy that there are no longer any impediments to repealing regulation 5.1B.

 

The Act specifies no conditions that need to be satisfied before the power to make the Regulations may be exercised.

 

The amending Regulations omit regulation 5.1B from the Principal Regulations.

 

The amending Regulations commence on the day after they are registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.

 

Details of the amending Regulations are set out in the Attachment.

 

The amending Regulations are a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 (LIA).

 

 

 

 

 

ATTACHMENT

 

Details of the Telecommunications Amendment Regulations 2010 (No. 1)

 

Regulation 1 – Name of Regulations

 

This regulation provides that the title of the Regulations is the Telecommunications Amendment Regulations 2010 (No. 1).

 

Regulation 2 – Commencement

 

This regulation provides for the Regulations to commence on the day after they are registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.

 

 

Regulation 3 – Amendment of Telecommunications Regulations 2001

 

This regulation provides that Schedule 1 amends the Telecommunications Regulations 2001.

 

Schedule 1 - Amendment

 

Item 1 omits regulation 5.1B from the Telecommunications Regulations 2001.