Explanatory Statement
Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Communications
Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999
Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) (Non-Participating Persons) Determination 2025
Authority
The Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) (Non-Participating Persons) Determination 2025 (Determination) is made by the Minister for Communications (the Minister) under subsection 44(2) of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999 (Act).
Purpose
The purpose of the Determination is to set a revenue threshold of $25 million that exempts certain persons from being ‘participating persons’ and required to contribute to the Telecommunications Industry Levy (TIL) under the Act.
Background
Division 6 of Part 2 of the Act provides a framework that allows for the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to assess and collect the TIL. The TIL itself is imposed by the Telecommunications (Industry Levy) Act 2012.
The eligible revenue of ‘participating persons’ determined by the ACMA for a given eligible revenue period is used to calculate the amount of TIL payable in the following eligible levy period.
Funds raised by the TIL, along with contributions from the Australian Government, meet the costs of contractors and grant recipients to deliver public interest telecommunications services (see section 14 of the Act) and costs of the Commonwealth in administering these contracts and grants. Public interest telecommunications services, which are designed to meet the policy objectives set out in section 13 of the Act, currently include but are not limited to universal service obligations for standard telephone services and payphones, emergency call services and the National Relay Service.
Under subsection 44(1) of the Act, a person is a ‘participating person’ for an eligible revenue period if:
- the person was a carrier at any time during the eligible revenue period (paragraph 44(1)(a) of the Act); or
- the Minister has made a written determination that carriage service providers are participating persons for the eligible revenue period and the person was a carriage service provider at any time during the eligible revenue period (paragraph 44(1)(b) of the Act); or
- at any time during the eligible revenue period, the person was in a class of persons specified in the regulations (paragraph 44(1)(c) of the Act).
Currently, there is no written Ministerial determination made under paragraph 44(1)(b) of the Act, or a regulation made for the purposes of paragraph 44(1)(c) of the Act.
The Determination replaces the Telecommunications (Participating Persons) Determination 2015) (PP Determination 2015) previously made under the Act. This Determination includes minor, stylistic drafting changes, but continues to maintain the same $25 million revenue threshold and associated administrative processes set out in the PP Determination 2015.
As with the PP Determination 2015, the Determination is intended to reduce the compliance burden on smaller entities with less than $25 million in relevant revenue that would otherwise be required to contribute to the TIL. By determining these entities are not participating persons, they are then not required to submit eligible revenue returns to the ACMA under the Act, which can be a resource‑intensive and time‑consuming process. While larger entities may be able to absorb such burdens, smaller entities may have greater difficulties in doing so.
The Determination is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislation Act 2003 and is subject to the default sunsetting requirements and disallowance.
Details of the Determination are set out in Attachment A.
Consultation
The Department publicly released an exposure draft of this Determination in August 2025, and all carriers were advised of this consultation (this was done by the ACMA as it maintains a register of carriers). The Department also notified peak telecommunications industry and consumer groups of the consultation.
Stakeholders were provided with a two-week period to review the exposure draft and provide any comments. Submissions were received from six companies involved in the telecommunications sector and the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network. Submissions were generally in favour of the proposed Determination, with the majority supporting maintaining an eligible revenue threshold of $25 million.
Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights
A statement of compatibility with human rights for the purposes of Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 is set out at Attachment B.
Attachment A
Details of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) (Non-Participating Persons) Determination 2025
Section 1 – Name
This section provides that the name of the instrument is the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) (Non-Participating Persons) Determination 2025.
Section 2 – Commencement
This section provides that the whole of the instrument will commence on the day after it is registered on the Federal Register of Legislation.
Section 3 – Authority
This section provides that the instrument is made under subsection 44(2) of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999.
Section 4 – Definitions
Section 4 defines a number of the terms used in the Determination. A number of definitions refer to the Telecommunications (Eligible Revenue) Determination 2025 (Eligible Revenue Determination) made by the ACMA. The note explains that some terms are also defined in the Act.
The term ‘eligible statutory declaration’ is defined in this section as the Determination allows persons to declare eligible revenue to the ACMA (see further explanation under section 6 below) used in section 6. If the person is a company, such a declaration can be made by a director, company secretary or other persons authorised in writing by the company. ‘Director’ and ‘company secretary’ take their meanings from the Corporations Act 2001. This provides flexibility within companies for this administrative task to be delegated to a relevant person.
An eligible statutory declaration would need to comply with the requirements set out in the Statutory Declarations Act 1959, and under that Act, a person who intentionally makes a false statement commits an offence and may be fined, jailed or both.
Section 5 – Schedules
This section provides that each instrument specified in a Schedule to the instrument is amended or repealed as set out in the applicable item in the Schedule concerned, and that any other item in a Schedule to the instrument has effect according to its terms. There is one item in the Schedule relating to the repeal of the PP Determination 2015.
Section 6 – Persons who are not participating persons for an eligible revenue period
Subsection 6(1) sets out that a person is exempt from section 44 of the Act for an eligible revenue period if any of subsections (2), (3) and (4) of Section 6 applies to the person for the period. A note in the subsection reminds readers that a person who is exempt from section 44 of the Act for an eligible revenue period is not a ‘participating person’ for the period.
Subsections 6(2), (3) and (4) set out that if an eligible statutory declaration is provided to the ACMA within the specified timeframe stating the person’s initial sales revenue, gross telecommunications sales revenue or eligible revenue, respectively, is less than $25 million, or if the ACMA is otherwise reasonably satisfied of this, then that person will not be a ‘participating person’. This latter part provides the ACMA with some discretion, as a person may have otherwise submitted a full return of its eligible revenue under section 43 of the Act, or may have submitted a statutory declaration which, due to a minor administrative error, did not meet the requirement for submission of an ‘eligible statutory declaration’ within the specified timeframe.
Subsection 6(5) sets out that if a person has the same ‘ultimate Australian parent entity’ (a term defined in the Eligible Revenue Determination) as one or more other carriers, carriage service providers (if a determination under paragraph 44(1)(b) of the Act is in force), or persons specified in regulations in force under paragraph 44(1)(c) of the Act, then that person and each of those carriers, carriage service providers or other persons must calculate initial sales revenue, gross telecommunications sales revenue or eligible revenue on a group basis, accounting for revenue and deductions as a whole.
As with the PP Determination 2015, subsection 6(5) has been included to protect against an ultimate Australian parent entity from artificially restructuring a group of entities so that no individual entity had revenue that exceeded the $25 million threshold (i.e. so that each individual entity was a ‘non‑participating person’).
Section 7 – Application and savings provisions
Subsection 7(1) provides that the Determination applies to the 2025-26 eligible revenue period and subsequent eligible revenue periods.
Subsection 7(2) provides that the PP Determination 2015 (despite its repeal due to the operation of Schedule 1) continues to apply for the eligible revenue periods from 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2025.
Schedule 1 – Repeals
Item 1 in Schedule 1 repeals the Telecommunications (Participating Persons) Determination 2015.
The Determination relies on subsection 33(3) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 for the power to repeal the PP Determination 2015. Under subsection 33(3) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901, where an Act confers a power to make, grant or issue any instrument of a legislative or administrative character (including rules, regulations or by-laws), the power shall be construed as including a power exercisable in the like manner and subject to the like conditions (if any) to repeal, rescind, revoke, amend, or vary any such instrument.
Attachment B
Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights
Prepared in accordance with Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011
Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) (Non-Participating Persons) Determination 2025
This Disallowable Legislative Instrument is compatible with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared in the international instruments listed in section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011.
Overview
The Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) (Non-Participating Persons) Determination 2025 (Determination) exempts certain persons from being participating persons for the purposes of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999 (Act). This will exempt these persons from needing to lodge an eligible revenue return with the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). As a consequence, no eligible revenue will be assessed and those persons will not have a levy liability assessed under the Act for the relevant eligible levy period (i.e. financial year).
As with the Telecommunications (Participating Persons) Determination 2015 it replaces, the Determination is intended to reduce the compliance burden of smaller entities with less than $25 million in relevant revenue that would otherwise be required to contribute to the Telecommunications Industry Levy (TIL). Funds raised by the TIL, along with contributions from the Australian Government, are used to meet the costs of service contracts or grants to deliver universal services (i.e. residential voice and payphone services) and other public policy telecommunications outcomes (e.g. emergency call service and the National Relay Service for voice-equivalent services for people who are deaf, hard-of-hearing or have a speech impairment), and costs of the Commonwealth in administering these contracts and grants.
By determining that smaller entities are not participating persons, they are then not required to submit eligible revenue returns to the ACMA under the Act, which can be a resource‑intensive and time‑consuming process. While larger entities may be able to absorb such burdens, smaller entities may have greater difficulties in doing so.
Human rights implications
The Determination does not engage any of the applicable rights or freedoms and does not raise any human rights issues.
Conclusion
The Determination is compatible with human rights as it does not raise any human rights issues.