The ACMA’s overriding purpose is to make communications and media work in the public interest, and its international engagement is central to achieving this. The role of international engagement in both protecting and promoting Australia’s communications and media interests is reflected in the legislation the ACMA administers - particularly for spectrum management, telecommunications and radiocommunications standards-setting, unsolicited communications and cybersecurity, and online content. These areas of the ACMA’s work span jurisdictional boundaries, often making it necessary to engage with international bodies and overseas regulators to develop effective responses to the challenges they raise.
The ACMA and its predecessors have been engaging with overseas organisations and in international fora for many years. However, the continued global integration of communications and media markets and services, and the disruptive impacts of digital technologies is driving the need for greater collaboration and cooperation between countries. The ACMA is one of many communications and media regulators around the world looking to maximise the social and economic benefits of digital technologies through developing best-practice responses to these challenges.
International engagement is an important way the ACMA advances policies and programs that will help to reduce harms and promote outcomes in the interests of Australian business and the community. For example, the ACMA’s international engagement aims to prevent cybersecurity threats and unsolicited communications at the source country through entering bilateral and multilateral arrangements to support a safer networked environment. And, along with other international regulators, the ACMA is looking to ensure that sufficient spectrum is available to cater for the expected growth in mobile broadband services through regional and global harmonisation to foster innovation and productivity within the Australian communications sector.
Through engaging with overseas regulators and other international bodies, the ACMA can learn from their experiences and enhance its own regulatory practice. In so doing, the ACMA ensures its decisions and approaches reflect world’s best practice, and as an organisation it is well positioned to respond to the pressures and demands of the evolving environment in which it operates
