Federal parliament bill suggests increasing fines on telcos by a whopping 4000 per cent

Optus has avoided the risk of being slapped with the biggest fine in Australian corporate history because the federal election in May delayed a parliamentary bill that could have left the company staring down a multibillion-dollar punishment.

Optus Chief Executive Officer Stephen Rue provides an update to the media with regards to the triple-0 call failures. Picture: Dylan Coker / NewsWire.

Optus has avoided the risk of being slapped with the biggest fine in Australian corporate history because the Federal election in May delayed a parliamentary bill that could have left the company staring down a multibillion-dollar punishment.

The embattled telco may still face a fine of around $300 million if found to be in breach of the Telecommunications Act over the triple-0 outage scandal linked to three deaths.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has the ability as the regulator to pursue a company through the Federal Court where a fine of $250,000 per contravention can be imposed.

Optus CEO Stephen Rue leaving his Seaforth home this week. Picture: Thomas Lisson

Industry experts have told The Daily Telegraph that a failure to deliver emergency call availability and a failure to then connect customers to emergency services could be determined as a double contravention for each of the reported 600 unsuccessful calls made by Optus customers.

But the financial fallout scenario for Optus – fined $12m for a 2023 outage – could have been devastatingly worse.

The Federal Government in February moved to strengthen the powers of ACMA by introducing the Telecommunications Amendment Bill 2025, including a potential for some breach penalties to increase 4000 per cent from $250,000 to $10m.

While the bill was passed by the House of Representatives, it was with the Senate when parliament was dissolved ahead of the 2025 election.

Optus under fire over the outage that impacted triple-0 services across the country. Picture: Nikki Short

Had the bill already been legislated, and Optus was eventually found guilty of breaching the Act, it would have likely surpassed Westpac for shouldering Australia’s largest corporate fine.

The bank was hit with a $1.3bn Federal Court order in 2020 for Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) breaches.

The CBA was fined $700m in 2018, also for AML/CTF breaches.

Communications Minister Anika Wells reintroduced the telecommunications amendment bill a month ago but it remains in the lower house for further debate after politicians from both sides spoke supportively of the prospective changes on 4 September.

In a media release on 26 August, two days before the proposed reforms were introduced to parliament, Ms Wells said: “Our Government is cracking down on telcos who cause harm to customers, with penalties increasing by 40 times what they are currently.

Minister for Communications Anika Wells during a press conference in Brisbane. Picture: Tertius Pickard

“We are committed to keeping Australians connected and by strengthening consumer protections it will mean a fairer and better system for everyone.

“These reforms build on our Government’s significant work to ensure telcos better protect and support their customers.

“This is first and foremost about looking after consumers, as well as driving fairness and building trust in the vital telecommunications industry.”

Ms Wells has been scathing of Optus since the outage revelations last Friday.

The minister warned that the telco will be “held accountable for this failure”, while ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin added “we didn’t expect to be here again so soon”, in reference to the 2023 Optus outage.

Originally published as Federal parliament bill suggests increasing fines on telcos by a whopping 4000 per cent