Comms Day Policy Forum

IAA’s Policy Officer, Sophia Joo, spoke at the inaugural Comms Day Policy Forum in mid-June, joining representatives from industry, academics, research analysts, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO), and Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) to discuss the future of telecommunications policy in Australia.

Representing the views of IAA and our members, Sophia’s speech addressed the poor engagement between government and industry, as well as other stakeholders with regards to policy making for the telecommunications sector. In the context of the recent Roy Morgan trust rating survey which found that telco is the ‘most distrusted industry’ in the entire Australian economy, Sophia put the case that Australia would benefit from greater public trust in this sector. To achieve this there needs to be improved transparency and communication, humility and a genuinely collaborative attitude, and greater priority given to developing effective and efficient policy.

As the sector continues to see an increasingly complex regulatory landscape, with recent calls for even further direct regulation over the telco industry, IAA firmly stands for a refreshed policy-making approach that prioritises practical and effective solutions that ask and answer “What are we trying to achieve here?”