The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) says this week’s Telstra outage is a timely reminder that reliable telecommunications are essential infrastructure for small businesses across the country.
For many small businesses, particularly those reliant on EFTPOS and digital online systems and communications, even a relatively short outage can have immediate consequences. Disrupted payments, lost sales, interrupted customer service, cancelled bookings and significant operational disruption. Retail, hospitality, accommodation, transport and other service-based businesses are among those most exposed when telecommunications systems fail.
COSBOA CEO Skye Cappuccio said dependable telecommunications are fundamental to the day-to-day operation of Australia’s small businesses.
“Small businesses rely on telecommunications to trade, take payments, communicate with customers, manage bookings, coordinate staff and access essential systems. When those services fail, the impacts can be immediate and costly,” Ms Cappuccio said.
“Small business owners should not be left carrying the cost of failures in essential services they pay for and rely on to operate.”
Ms Cappuccio said there should be a simple and proportionate process for small businesses that have experienced genuine financial loss as a result of the outage.
“Small businesses should not face unnecessary complexity when seeking compensation for losses caused by failures in essential services. Any process should be simple, practical and comparable to the loss experienced,” Ms Cappuccio said.
The outage also highlights the need for close consideration of what more can be done to minimise the risk and impact of major telecommunications outages in the future.
COSBOA believes small businesses should receive appropriate regulatory relief where they are unable to meet obligations because of significant technology failures outside their control, including where outages affect payroll, reporting, lodgements, payments or other compliance requirements.
Reliable telecommunications are critical infrastructure for Australia’s small business sector.
COSBOA will continue advocating for practical measures to strengthen network resilience, support small businesses affected by future outages, and ensure appropriate flexibility where technical failures prevent businesses from meeting their obligations.
