Final call: Optus' exploitation of First Nations customers must be the last, say advocates
Optus has agreed to pay a $100 million penalty, subject to court approval, over conduct that saw many First Nations people from remote communities sold services they did not want or need. Credit: Mark Baker/AP Optus, the second-largest telecommunications company in Australia, admitted this week to engaging in unconscionable conduct when selling telecommunications goods and services to hundreds of consumers, many of whom were First Nations. Dunghutti man Mark Holden, a senior solicitor at Mob Strong Debt Help - a non-profit organisation that offers free finance-related legal advice to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities – says he hopes this is a wake-up call.
'This should be the final call now for the telecommunications industry to be able to shape up here and try to be more proactive, taking more practical steps to be able to end the harm to First Nations peoples here when it comes to the sale of an essential service," he said. Optus sold many First Nations people from remote services they did not want or need and has agreed to pay a $100 million penalty, after an investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). 'Oftentimes, we find that the conduct happens in areas where there's more likely to be vulnerable people living there," Mr Holden told NITV. "So remote communities, rural areas, but even as well, in some urban areas as well too, where First Nations peoples often are targeted. 'They might come in and just be looking for a typical charge cable, and they'll be then sold a couple of phones, a speaker, a console, iPads. "And they're just being charged all these fees, that just racks up quite fast.'
Optus is not the first telco fined for wrongful conduct. Telstra was penalised $50 million in 2021 for unconscionable conduct when selling mobile contracts to Indigenous consumers. 'I think that if the sales model makes money, then other people will be doing it as well," Mr Holden said. 'Because Telstra was doing it, we just were not surprised when ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) first announced that Optus was also doing this too. 'These are just two cases that we're looking at here, I wouldn't be surprised as well to if there are other telco providers here who could be doing the same thing.'
As well as debt, the impact of the conduct can also lead to a lot of shame amongst mob. 'Besides the financial loss, here we have a lot of mob who are faced with this crippling debt," Mr Holden said. "And when it comes to debt, there's a lot of shame as well too. 'Sometimes there's a very, very strong fear of further action being taken against them, there's a fear of them maybe going to jail.'
It's even left some people trying to access their superannuation to pay their debts. 'That's a very bit of extra harm here as well, too, that when people don't pay their debts, the telco can issue a default on the credit report, and that default can last for about five years from listing, and that can severely impact their ability to be able to take a loan, to be able to be able to support themselves," Mr Holden said. Optus is compensating impacted consumers for the period between August 2019 and July 2023, during which it agreed the alleged conduct took place. But Mark says it should go further.
'You want to be able to have a remediation program that looks at the entirety of the sales practices, so that even though we're looking at people who are affected in the period, we're looking at people who were affected before that and after that as well, too, people who've been treated the same way," he said. 'So that they also could get not only just a refund of what they paid, but also compensation with interest for the harm they suffered.'
He says it should be a wake-up call for other industries too, as the pattern of exploitation isn't unique to the telecommunications industry. 'This is really a practice of exploitation, taking advantage of someone's vulnerability to their advantage," Mr Holden said. "Unconscionable conduct is not something that just telcos do. "There is a industry of exploitation where First Nations peoples can be targeted by people who might exploit their vulnerability to their advantage. 'There has to be a call to action to be able to stop this exploitation, to be able to actually start working with communities, to be able to try and provide them the products that they need for the for their communities.'
Interviews and feature reports from NITV. A mob-made podcast about all things Blak life.
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