Commonwealth of Australia Explanatory Memoranda

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TELECOMMUNICATIONS LEGISLATION AMENDMENT (ACCESS REGIME AND NBN COMPANIES) BILL 2015

                      2013-2014-2015-2016


THE PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA


               HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES




 TELECOMMUNICATIONS LEGISLATION AMENDMENT
  (ACCESS REGIME AND NBN COMPANIES) BILL 2015



   SUPPLEMENTARY EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM




     Amendments to be moved on behalf of the Government




   (Circulated by authority of the Minister for Communications,
              Senator the Honourable Mitch Fifield)
                                   AMENDMENTS

These amendments remove several measures in the Telecommunications Legislation
Amendment (Access Regime and NBN Companies) Bill 2015 (the Bill).
Amendment (1) removes Parts 3, 4 and 5 of Schedule 1 to the Bill in their entirety.
Part 3 of the Bill proposed amendments to Part XIC of the Competition and Consumer
Act 2010 (CCA) to provide for a mechanism to relax the non-discrimination obligations
applying to NBN Co for pilots and trials of new eligible services or enhanced declared
services.
Part 4 of the Bill proposed amendments to Part XIC of the CCA in respect of the
approach of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to access
determinations.
Part 5 of the Bill proposed amendments to Part XIC of the CCA in respect of notices
issued by the ACCC to vary and accept special access undertakings.
Amendment (2) removes Division 1 of Part of 7 of Schedule 1 to the Bill. This Division
proposed a regulation-making power to allow some types of changes to be made,
subject to Parliamentary scrutiny, to the line of business restrictions under the National
Broadband Network Companies Act 2011.
Amendment (3) removes the heading "Division 2--Supply of goods and services". This
is a consequence of the change made by Amendment (2).
Amendment (4) removes Division 3 of Part 7 of Schedule 1 to the Bill. This Division
proposed changes to authorisations for the purposes of competition law set out in
Division 16 of Part XIB of the CCA.
Amendment (5) removes Part 8 of Schedule 1 to the Bill in its entirety. Part 8 proposed
amendments intended to clarify the status of facilities access services supplied under
definitive agreements and other agreements entered into by NBN Co.

Following these amendments to the Bill, the remaining provisions of the Bill are:
      Part 1, which deals with the relationship between ACCC declaration of access to
       facilities under Part XIC of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and
       facilities access arrangements under Schedule 1 of the Telecommunications Act
       1997;
      Part 2, which clarifies that access providers must provide access to in-building
       cabling they own or control when providing access to a declared service they are
       supplying over that cabling,
      Part 6, which requires the ACCC to have regard to relevant fixed principles
       included in previous access determinations or SAUs when considering new
       access determinations or SAUs and to make it easier for the ACCC to accept
       fixed principles, and
      Part 7, Division 2, which enables NBN Co to dispose of surplus goods.
Detailed notes on these provisions are provided in the Explanatory Memorandum to the
Bill.