Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has confirmed the federal government is considering financial support for Victorian workers facing a second week in lockdown.

Mr Frydenberg confirmed on Thursday there had been discussions overnight, following a second plea from the Victorian government for the federal government to step in to help.

Hundreds of thousands of casual workers in Melbourne face another week without work and pay because of the extended lockdown. Retail, in-house dining and drinking, gyms and hairdressers remained closed in the city, although restrictions are expected to ease in regional Victoria from midnight Thursday.

Mr Frydenberg hinted that any decision to extend lockdown support would not be localised and instead involve a broader policy shift.

“What we need to think about, obviously given the pandemic is still with us, is how we approach this on a national basis,” heF said.

“It’s not about Victoria, Western Australia or individual cases. We will stick to our principles.”

The Kooyong MP noted lockdown-hit Victorian workers could apply for JobSeeker payments, with the removal of the regular waiting period and mutual obligation requirements.

Mr Frydenberg was adamant Victoria had the capacity to respond to its initial one-week lockdown. But now the lockdown is being extended by another week across Melbourne, he is considering a disaster and emergency style payment scheme.

“There are options that we are considering and that is one of many that we have looked at,” Mr Frydenberg told ABC radio on Thursday.

“There is a need in Victoria for continued support.”

Mr Frydenberg is determined to pull existing levers to deliver temporary and targeted assistance.

Pressure is mounting on the federal government to open its chequebook for Victoria.

An outbreak of the Indian variant of coronavirus has triggered a seven-day extension to the Victorian capital’s lockdown, which was initially slated to end on Friday.

The outbreak rose to 60 cases on Wednesday, with no update yet available for Thursday.

Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino has made a desperate plea for extra Commonwealth help with thousands of workers and businesses copping the brunt of restrictions.

But the Morrison government is concerned a one-off package for the state could set a precedent for other states considering lockdowns when confronted with outbreaks.

Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas has branded the federal government’s refusal to reinstate JobKeeper wage subsidies a disgrace.

The state government is spending $459 million in business assistance over the two weeks of lockdown.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Mr Frydenberg spoke with their state counterparts on Thursday night.

It is understood the federal Coalition government favours assistance with nationwide implications, rather than a large Victoria-specific funding injection.

Mr Morrison has rejected opposition accusations he is to blame for the lockdown because of a sluggish vaccine rollout and failure to seize control of quarantine.

“Decisions to implement lockdowns in states and territories around the country are solely and totally the responsibility of state and territory governments,” he told parliament.

Labor shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers said the Coalition should agree to Victoria’s request for financial support for thousands of workers not receiving a pay cheque.

“The Morrison government’s failures on vaccines and quarantine are strangling the small businesses of Victoria,” he said on Wednesday.

There are also renewed calls for an overhaul of hotel quarantine after a man in Perth became infected by a fellow returned traveller in a room next door, the 21st breach in a hotel.

Talks between the Victorian and federal governments are progressing on a stand-alone quarantine facility, likely to be based near Avalon Airport.

Mr Frydenberg told ABC TV on Thursday a decision on that proposal was “imminent”, and likely within days – but wouldn’t be drawn further.

Jane Halton, who undertook a major review of quarantine, has said it is perplexing it has taken so long to increase capacity at the Howard Springs quarantine camp in the Northern Territory and look at facilities in other states.

-with AAP

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Israel’s opposition leader has formed a coalition government with the help of the small Arab party Ra’am shortly before a midnight deadline, concluding the era of longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Yair Lapid informed the president that he had succeeded in forming a government on Wednesday, and pledged to do all he could to unite the country.

“This government will work for all the citizens of Israel, those that voted for it and those that didn’t. It will do everything to unite Israeli society,” Mr Lapid told President Reuven Rivlin.

The Knesset factions that will form the coalition are Lapid’s centrist Yesh Atid (There Is a Future), the centrist Blue and White, the secular Yisrael Beiteinu party, the Labour Party, the ultra-right Yamina (Rightwards) party, right-leaning New Hope, the left-liberal Meretz Party, and Ra’am.

The agreement came shortly before a deadline passed for Lapid to form a government, as his 28-day mandate to forge a working majority was to end at midnight (0700 on Thursday AEST).

Coming more than two months after Israel’s elections, it followed high-pressure efforts to bring together eight parties, some of them far apart on the political spectrum.

The new government is expected to be sworn in on June 14, although Lapid also told Mr Rivlin he hoped to bring the government to the approval of the Knesset as soon as possible.

After speaking with Mr Rivlin, Lapid asked the Speaker of the Knesset to call a special session as soon as possible so he could inform the parliament he had succeeded in forming a government.

Mr Lapid, until now opposition leader, needs the support of a simple majority of the 120 members in the Knesset.

Yamina head Naftali Bennett and Lapid agreed to rotate the role of prime minister, with Bennett taking on the post for the first two years before he is replaced by Lapid on August 27, 2023.

Mr Lapid would begin in the role of foreign minister.

His party, in the political centre, was the second strongest force in the March election after Mr Netanyahu’s right-wing conservative Likud.

Mr Lapid entered politics after a career as a television host and served as finance minister in a previous Netanyahu government.

Mr Netanyahu has led the country since 2009 and was also prime minister from 1996 to 1999, making him Israel’s longest-serving head of government.

The seven small parties united under Lapid’s Yesh Atid were joined by their rejection of Mr Netanyahu, who is the subject of a corruption trial.

Otherwise, they have divergent political goals.

Mr Bennett’s pro-settler Yamina differs widely from other coalition partners such as Meretz, the Labour Party and Ra’am, which support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state – differences that could complicate the work of Mr Lapid’s coalition.

In early May, 56 lawmakers voted that Lapid should form a government after Mr Netanyahu failed to do so.

The formation follows an extended political crisis, with four elections in two years failing to produce a clear majority.

-AAP

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Daniel Andrews says he will know later this month whether he is well enough to return to his post as Victorian Premier.

In his first post on social media since April , Mr Andrews – who is recovering from a broken vertebra and fractured ribs – said he is due to undergo more scans next week.

He will then meet with his medical team who will advise him on the most appropriate time to resume work.

“I’ll let you know how that goes and exactly when I’ll be back on deck later this month,” Mr Andrews posted to Twitter.

Tweet from @DanielAndrewsMP

He issued the “personal note” alongside a message to Melburnians as they prepare to endure another seven days of lockdown.

“Record tests, record vaccinations, record fight – we’re doing this to protect our communities, our state and the entire country,” Mr Andrews wrote.

“Be proud of what you’ve achieved and be proud of our state too.”

Mr Andrews suffered at least five broken ribs and an acute compression fracture of the T7 vertebra when he slipped on the steps of a holiday home on March 9.

The 48-year-old was released from hospital on March 15 and has been recovering at home since.

At the time he said he would require at least six weeks off to recover, but he’s been away from the public spotlight for almost three months now.

Daniel Andrews released this photo of himself with daughter Grace in April. Photo: Twitter/Daniel Andrews

Following the accident, Mr Andrews who narrowly avoided permanent damage to his spinal cord struggled to walk for more than 15 minutes each day.

In his most recent update in April , he said he had been diligent with his physiotherapy and was able to walk for an hour.

Deputy Premier James Merlino has been serving as acting premier in Mr Andrews’ absence.

Mr Andrews has been premier of Victoria since 2014 and was acknowledged for his commitment to the state during last year’s COVID lockdown, fronting more than 100 daily press conferences, often at the podium for more than 90 minutes.

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A Shell Coles Express and a cafe on the NSW South Coast are among several exposure sites a Melbourne family visited while potentially infectious.

Already 243 people have been forced into isolation, with NSW facing a nervous wait to see if Victoria’s coronavirus outbreak has spread.

Hundreds of regional Victorians are anxiously waiting for results, too. If their coronavirus tests are clear, stay-at-home orders will be eased for everyone outside of Melbourne.

On Wednesday night, the state’s Premier Daniel Andrews – who is recovering from surgery and has not made a public statement since April – urged Victorians to “keep fighting”.

Also during the night, that state’s health authorities released details of where it’s possible the coronavirus has spread between strangers.

They included buses on route 357.

• There are more than 360 Victorian exposure sites. Click here to see the full list

‘We got a bit complacent’ in NSW

NSW’s health department also issued an alert urging residents across six regions who visited the eight venues listed to get tested and isolate immediately.

They are Goulburn’s Shell Coles Express Big Merino, The Coffee Pedaler in Gundagai, Jervis Bay’s Green Patch campground, 5 Little Pigs in Huskisson, the Huskisson Treasure Chest, Coles Vincentia Shopping Villag, the Gundagai Craft Centre and and the Junque and Disorderly Antique Shop in Gundagai.

The Coffee Pedaler in Gundagai. Photo: Google Maps

The locations were visited by a Victorian man, his wife, and their two children who were on holiday near Jervis Bay in May. The whole family has since tested positive to COVID-19.

Health authorities are racing to determine if the family was infectious while there between May 19-24.

The man had symptoms on May 25 after driving back to Melbourne on May 24. He tested positive on Monday, nearly a week later.

Earlier on Wednesday, NSW Health confirmed that his wife and two children had also tested positive.

“If this gentleman was the source for those individuals, then they were not potentially infectious when they were in NSW, and clearly if the reverse is the case that may take back the exposure period,” chief health officer Kerry Chant said.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the scare was a reminder of the urgent need for people to get vaccinated, and for testing rates to remain high.

“We’ve seen more than 21,000 people come forward in the last 24 hours in NSW and get tested – that’s outstanding,” she said.

A Vincentia resident queueing at a pop-up testing clinic in Huskisson on the NSW south coast told 9News: “We thought we were pretty safe here in Vincentia, we just got a bit complacent.”

“I was complacent, I was worried about having the vaccine but now I regret not having it.”

Tweet from @NSWHealth

Regional Victorians await decision

On Thursday, Victorian leaders are expected to make a final decision on whether to reopen the state’s regional areas.

The decision to ease “circuit-breaker” restrictions will hinge on whether there are any new cases in areas outside Melbourne.

COVID-19 has been detected in wastewater at Bendigo and Axedale, and there are exposure sites at Anglesea, Axedale, Glenrowan, Kalkallo, Wallan and Rye.

But none of the 60 cases linked to the current outbreak have come from regional Victoria.

The so-called “ring of steel”, used in 2020 to enforce the regional divide, will be replaced by roving police patrols.

Melbourne, however, will remain in lockdown until at least 11.59pm on June 10.

Daniel Andrews will be ‘back on deck later this month’

The Victorian Premier, who is recovering from a broken vertebra and fractured ribs, took to Facebook with messages of support, saying the efforts they are making to endure the current lockdown will save lives.

“Record tests, record vaccinations, record fight – we’re doing this to protect our communities, our state and the entire country,” Mr Andrews’ post read.

He said he had more scans and a meeting with his medical team next week.

“I’ll let you know how that goes and exactly when I’ll be back on deck later this month.”

-with AAP

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opponents are racing the clock to finalise a coalition government that would end his 12-year rule ahead of a deadline at midnight (local time).

Centrist Yair Lapid and ultranationalist Naftali Bennett have joined forces and agreed to rotate the premiership between them, with Mr Bennett going first.

But they were still working to cobble together a ruling coalition that would include parties from across the political spectrum.

Israeli media reported some lingering disagreements over lower-level political appointments.

According to the reports, Ayelet Shaked, Mr Bennett’s deputy, was demanding a place on a committee that chooses the country’s judges.

But Mr Shaked, a prominent voice among Israel’s hard-line conservatives, has expressed misgivings about joining forces with the dovish members of the emerging coalition.

Both Mr Shaked and Mr Bennett have come under heavy pressure from Netanyahu and the country’s right wing base not to join his opponents.

The Knesset, or parliament, has assigned additional security guards to both in recent days because of death threats and online incitement.

By Thursday morning (Australian time), with under three hours before the deadline at midnight (7am AEST), there was still no sign of progress.

Mr Lapid must inform Israel’s largely ceremonial president, Reuven Rivlin, by midnight that he has formed a majority coalition of at least 61 seats in the Knesset.

The assembly would then have a week to hold a vote of confidence.

If Mr Lapid misses the deadline, the country will almost certainly have a fifth election in just over two years, and Mr Netanyahu would have yet another chance to hold onto his position as he stands trial for corruption.

Mr Netanyahu’s Likud won the most seats in the March 23 election but he was unable to form a majority with his traditional religious and nationalist allies.

-AAP

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Australia is the only OECD country to propose new coal mines on a scale so large that it will effectively double our emissions output, a new report has revealed.

Global Energy Monitor’s report, released on Thursday, found Earth will surpass the four degrees of warming as outlined by the Paris climate agreement if all the world’s currently approved coal mines come to fruition.

The report found coal producers are actively pursuing 2.2 billion tonnes per annum of new mine projects around the world.

It comes as more countries pledge to phase out coal from the electricity sector, which is the single most important step to tackle the climate crisis.

As for building new coal projects, Australia is the worst offender after China.

Four countries (China, Australia, India and Russia) make up 77 per cent (1750 million tonnes per annum) of all global mine development projects.

Currently, Australia has the equivalent of 31 million mtpa under construction and 435 million mtpa in the pipeline.

If developed, these projects boost supply to more than four times the 1.5 degrees-compliant pathway necessary to meet the goal of the Paris climate agreement.

Coal producers need to halt all new mines and mine extensions and reduce output 11 per cent each year through to 2030 to stand any chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees, and achieving the targets of the agreement.

Approved coal mines add country-sized emissions

Research analyst at Global Energy Monitor and lead author Ryan Driskell Tate said if Australia’s proposed projects are built, they will add the equivalent Co2 emissions of Japan every single year.

“That’s each year, 435 million tonnes each year. The next year and the next,” Mr Driskell Tate told The New Daily.

And even if Australia operates just the mines that are in the process of being built now, we’ll still churn out the same emissions as a medium-sized country.

That’s what we’ll add to the atmosphere through coal power.

“To put that in perspective, 31 million tonnes is about what the Philippines and Bulgaria produce every year,” Mr Driskell Tate said.

“Australia is the only OECD country to propose new coal mines at this scale. Essentially it’s like doubling our output.”

The dangers of missing the target

The world will dramatically surpass its Paris target if these mines are built, putting it on course for total ecological destruction, the report surmises.

Previous research has shown if global temperatures rise by just three degrees, Australians will be hit by blistering heatwaves, Black Summer-style bushfires every year, and hundreds and thousands of homes on the coast will be flooded.

If temperatures rise three degrees (above pre-industrial levels), our cities will become much hotter: Darwin will experience 265 days per year above 35 degrees, Brisbane 55 days, Melbourne 24 and Sydney 11.

Hotter temperatures would lead to as much as a 300 per cent increase in the number of extreme fire days each year.

The fallout

Not all of the proposed mines will necessarily get built.

Three-quarters of the proposed coal mines are in the early stages of planning and thus vulnerable to cancellation, but the report found a quarter are already under construction.

The prospect of a low-carbon transition and tighter emission policies put these projects at risk of becoming up to $US91 billion in stranded assets.

“In Australia that breaks down roughly to $15 billion pre-construction and $1 billion for the mines currently being built,” Mr Driskell Tate said.

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As Victorians prepare for a second week of extended lockdown, many have asked in frustration: “Why Victoria? What are we doing wrong?”

New South Wales seems able to control its coronavirus clusters while largely staying open, but Victoria has been forced to enter its fourth statewide lockdown – more than any other state or territory.

• Read: Frydenberg to ‘consider’ Vic lockdown support amid further pleas

Is it Melbourne’s demography?

Some top health experts have blamed demographic differences between Melbourne and Sydney as contributing factors.

Professor Marylouise McLaws, an infectious diseases expert at the University of New South Wales and member of the WHO’s COVID-19 response team, is one of them.

Speaking to the ABC on Monday, she pointed to some key features that she believes set Melbourne apart from Sydney.

• “Your city has younger people than Sydney has, and they like to go out,” she said. The theory goes that young people are generally very socially active, so they’re more likely to catch and transmit the virus
• Melbourne also has a “very well-connected migrant group”, where big families tend to live together under one roof. These close living conditions mean they could potentially pass on the virus to each other more easily.

But Dr Liz Allen, a demographer at the Australian National University, said the data simply doesn’t stack up.

“It’s simply not true to say demography and behaviour accounts for the different COVID experiences of Australia’s two most populous states,” she told The New Daily.

“Victoria is very much like New South Wales across a range of relevant indicators.”

For example, she said, Victorians aren’t younger than NSW residents, nor are they more ethnically diverse.

In 2016, the population of people born overseas was roughly the same in Victoria and NSW – about 30 per cent, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

“The trouble with pointing the finger at subpopulations here is that individuals are being blamed incorrectly, and as a result, face demonisation,” Dr Allen said.

Is it Melbourne’s transport habits?

Speaking to ABC Radio National on Wednesday morning, Labor’s aged care spokeswoman Clare O’Neil blamed Melbourne’s geography and transport use.

“The layout of the city is one where people move around a lot more than they do in Sydney, where people tend to stay within their suburbs,” she said.

Professor McLaws also pointed out that Melbourne has “really great public transport”, which enables people to travel further – and potentially take the virus with them.

However, Dr Allen said if anything, data shows Victorians are more likely than NSW residents to jump in their car over taking public transport.

Sydneysiders have the highest rate of public transport use in Australia, ABS data shows.

Is it Melbourne’s population?

Not necessarily.

Housing isn’t more densely populated in Melbourne, nor do people there do more travel, Dr Allen said.

“In theory, population characteristics are important considerations in virus and disease outbreaks,” she said.

“But that’s not what’s happening here.”

Is this particular strain of the virus more transmittable?

“As time goes by, these new variants become more and more contagious,” Dr Norman Swan told ABC radio.

He said Victoria’s crisis was unlike previous outbreaks because it was spreading through “fleeting contact”, sometimes among strangers.

“You can’t compare what’s going on this year to last year. It’s a different circumstance,” he told the program.

“What it is, is bad luck and what NSW had three or four weeks ago was good luck.”

So if it’s not age, population or transport habits, then what is it?

“Luck plays a role,” Dr Allen said.

“But leadership and public health measures matter, too.”

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We can no longer avoid a debate about making COVID-19 vaccination compulsory.

At the very least it should be required for healthcare workers, and perhaps for anyone mingling in crowds – going to the football, concerts or the theatre, pubs, cafes and restaurants and, of course, travelling.

The government should explain to those who decide not to be vaccinated that it’s also a decision to stay home and not see anyone.

Desperate businesses in the tourism industry and in Victoria this week are calling for mandatory vaccination, and who can blame them?

Full general compulsion, as with seatbelts and super, is probably out of the question – none of the many other compulsory things in society get injected into our arms.

But for a start the government should stop saying it’s making vaccines available for “those who want it”.

The message needs to be much tougher than that.

Workers in aged care, quarantine and health care generally must be fully vaccinated or find another job, because 17 per cent of people with the virus have no symptoms, and even those who do develop symptoms take a few days to know they’re sick.

The world will eventually have to have a system of passports for those who have been vaccinated, so that airlines and airports, and venue operators who have to deal with crowds, can decide who to let in.

Public liability insurance companies will probably insist on that anyway.

More broadly, the chaotic vaccine spin that’s going on in Australia needs to be replaced with calm, honest transparency.

We had high hopes for Commodore Eric Young, who was brought, blinking, out of the Navy and into the public gaze five weeks ago by the Health Minister Greg Hunt and named as “Operations Co-ordinator from the Vaccine Operations Centre”.

Yes! Get the military involved.

Mr Hunt didn’t say the Commodore is now in charge of Australia’s vaccine rollout, although that was implied and widely assumed at the time, but he did say Commodore Young served at sea “on a number of occasions”, including the Middle East, had been the Chief of Staff to Navy, and had also been decorated, which could be viewed on the Commodore’s ample chest.

A decorated sailor who has actually been to sea is clearly the right man to be running the most crucial and difficult vaccination program in Australian history.

That Greg Hunt is always at the microphone tells us Commodore Eric Young is not really in charge of the rollout. Photo: AAP

Except it has been pretty clear in every press conference and media appearance since then that he’s not.

The man in charge of the vaccine rollout is Greg Hunt.

Commodore Young is merely operations co-ordinator, as well as the man in charge of burying journalists in data at press conferences, which he does with extraordinary precision and recollection.

His ability to rattle off statistics without an autocue, while staring straight ahead, is nothing short of miraculous.

Anyway, if Greg Hunt really is in charge of Australia’s vaccine rollout, as he presents publicly, and it isn’t any of the various Health Department lackeys who take turns at the mic, then he needs to be much clearer, more transparent and more honest about what he’s up to.

If not, give the job to someone else – not a politician – and step to the back of the press conference podium.

Is the aim herd immunity? If so, by when? And what will that mean for the economy? And tell us how it’s to be achieved, not simply how many people got vaccinated yesterday.

Most experts I’ve spoken to, and I’ve spoken to a few, say we need to vaccinate at least 75 per cent of the population for herd immunity but we are currently heading for a maximum of about 60 per cent.

The highest estimation comes from Professor Marylouise McLaws of UNSW, who told me this week it will take 83.5 per cent of the population to be vaccinated.

That’s partly because of how rapidly the virus is now mutating and spreading, and also because 20 per cent of the population are children, who are not being vaccinated because they don’t display symptoms, and about 20 per cent are “hesitant” (technical term, which doesn’t mean they’re anti-vaxxers – it means they’re worried, and need to be persuaded, or they live in the bush and can’t get to a doctor easily).

If those people can’t be persuaded, or helped, and if there is no plan to vaccinate at least half the kids, say those over 12 – who can still spread COVID-19 – then Australia is looking at closed borders, 14-day quarantines and frequent state-wide lockdowns for at least three years.

So, what’s the official word on the requirement for herd immunity? And the plan to get to it, whether it’s 75 or 83.5 per cent? Hope?

UNSW professor Marylouise McLaws believes we need to vaccinate 83.5 per cent of the population to achieve ‘herd immunity’. Photo: AAP

Supply has been, and still is, a problem.

CSL’s factory at Clayton in Melbourne is chugging out a million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine per week now, which is not enough.

CSL says it’s working on increasing the output, but just a little, not dramatically.

As for distribution, the most recent weekly update from the Vaccine Operations Centre said that 510,000 doses had been administered in the previous week.

To reach 75 per cent full vaccination, that is with two doses each, 38 million doses would have to be injected into 19 million arms.

At the current rate it would take 74 weeks, or about 18 months.

The rate can clearly be increased, especially when more Pfizer vaccines are available and the 50 million Novavax doses on order get approved, but it’s still probably 12 months off.

Professor McLaws says that to reach herd immunity by Christmas this year, the rate would have to step up to 150,000 per day – almost double what it is now.

All of this should be disclosed.

Everyone in the loop, from Greg Hunt and the chief medical officer down, would know exactly when herd immunity is likely to be achieved in Australia and what life will be like until then, and they should share this with the rest of us so we can make plans … especially the businesses affected.

As for persuading those who are “hesitant”, the UK and US have been trying advertising campaigns with Elton John and Dolly Parton, which are funny and nice, and might work.

We should try that too – with Jimmy Barnes and Kylie Minogue, of course.

But the carrot should be supplemented with the stick: That is, vaccine passports and no entry without one.

Alan Kohler writes twice a week for The New Daily . He is also editor in chief of Eureka Report and finance presenter on ABC news

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Internet providers have been fined $2.5 million for making misleading claims about NBN speeds, as a new report highlights Australians’ telco complaints.

The federal court has ordered Dodo and iPrimus to pay $1.5 million and $1 million respectively for making ‘misleading claims’ about their NBN broadband speeds, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ruled on Wednesday.

The news came as the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman’s latest report showed a rise in the number of unresolved complaints.

Dodo and iPrimus are both owned by Vocus Group, which is Australia’s fourth-largest telco operator, with 5.2 per cent overall market share of consumer NBN services, and 436,000 retail broadband customers.

Both admitted their ‘typical evening speed’ claims made between March 2018 and April 2019 were misleading because they were not based on an appropriate testing methodology.

“The ACCC brought this case because we were concerned that the methodology which the Vocus Group used as the basis for its speed claims cherry-picked only the fastest speeds its network could deliver, and ignored the slower speeds many of its customers experienced,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.

“These misleading speed claims meant consumers could not accurately compare different offerings and make an informed choice about their broadband provider.”

No reception? Mobile services frustrate Australians

Mobile phone services beat internet and landlines as the nation’s most complained about telco service, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman’s latest quarterly report revealed.

Residential consumers and small businesses made 30,393 complaints about phone and internet services between January and March, the report released on Wednesday showed.

The figure represents a 0.3 per cent decline in complaints compared to the previous quarter.

Mobile phone connections remained the most complained about service type, accounting for more than one in three complaints (35 per cent).

‘No or delayed action’ by service providers was the biggest gripe, accounting for 43 per cent total complaints across all telco services.

Service and equipment fees was the next biggest problem, accounting for 33 per cent of all complaints, followed by ‘no phone or internet service’ (13 per cent).

Unresolved complaints ‘concerning’

The ombudsman’s report showed a “concerning” rise in the number of unresolved complaints so far this year.

Between January and March, 7248 complaints came back unresolved from telco service providers, up from 6829 in the previous quarter.

There were 5674 unresolved complaints ‘escalated for dispute resolution’ in the first three months of 2021, up from 4011 in October-December.

“Complaints reflect the consumer experience of their phone and internet services and interactions with their telco. While the decline in overall complaints is a positive sign, the increase in complaints coming back to us unresolved is concerning,” Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Judi Jones said.

Luke Clifton, group executive at Macquarie Telecom, said the report showed “the telco industry’s woeful reputation on customer service” was continuing “with more than one complaint every five minutes, of every single day in the first quarter of the year”.

“As lockdowns continue to plague millions of Australians and virtual communication becomes even more important for how we live, connect and work, telcos have simply not stepped up to fix long-overdue systemic issues,” Mr Clifton said.

The rise in reporting of unresolved complaints “is very concerning”, he said, as “it means that even when the ombudsman steps in, issues are not being resolved and consumers are left stranded”.

“Reliance on telecoms will keep rising, and the industry needs to take a hard look at itself,” Mr Clifton said.

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