Australia’s largest telecommunications providers Telstra, Optus, and TPG have been brought before the federal government as it faces criticism from political opponents over two recent Optus outages which blocked Triple Zero calls.
Chief executives from the three companies met Communications Minister Anika Wells in Canberra on Tuesday, on the same day she introduced new legislation to formally create a so-called Triple Zero Custodian to better monitor the nation’s emergency call system.
The government has faced pressure from the opposition and consumer groups over its failure to legislate such a custodian, which was recommended in March 2024 by a government-commissioned report into the major Optus outage which occurred on 8 November 2023.
The opposition grilled Wells during Question Time on Tuesday about why it had taken the government so long to act on the recommendation and implement the law.
The minister said the blame lay with Optus.
"This outage was the fault of Optus, and Optus alone, and they will be held accountable,” she said.
Optus suffered two Triple Zero outages in as many weeks in September: the first was attributed to human error and blamed for at least four deaths, while the second impacted a single mobile tower in New South Wales and was attributed to equipment failure.
Wells told parliament telcos had “no excuses” for Triple Zero failures, and she had "made that crystal clear” in her meeting with company CEOs.
In a joint statement, Telstra CEO Vicki Brady, TPG CEO Iñaki Berroeta, and Optus CEO Stephen Rue described their meeting with Wells as “constructive”, but reiterated not all outages are preventable.
“Australians need to be able to trust that calls to Triple Zero will work when it matters most, and we take that responsibility seriously,” they said.
“While no network is infallible and outages can occur due to factors such as severe weather, power loss, or technical faults, our focus is on minimising the risk of disruption and responding swiftly when issues arise.”
Optus, Telstra, and TPG issued a joint statement after being brought before the government in Canberra. Images: Shutterstock / Supplied
Shadow minister for communications, Melissa McIntosh, accused Wells of hosting “a PR exercise” by bringing the telco executives to Canberra.
But she said the opposition would be inclined to cooperate with the government to get the legislation through by the end of the parliamentary year "in the interest of Australians”, despite her concerns it could add “more bureaucracy on bureaucracy”.
"Australians have been let down by Optus, have been let down by this government, and I fear that their confidence in the whole network, the Triple Zero network, is starting to fail,” she said.
“… Optus has failed Australians, their customers, and the government has failed in implementing recommendations.”
McIntosh also accused the government on Wednesday of using its majority to prevent the establishment of a parliamentary inquiry into the Triple Zero system.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he discussed the latest Optus Triple Zero outage with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Wednesday.
Optus is a subsidiary of Singaporean telco giant Singtel.
Wong told a joint press conference between the two leaders that he expected both Optus and Singtel would comply with ongoing investigations and “get to the bottom” of the cause of the recent outage to “make sure that something like that doesn’t happen again”.
Government introduces Triple Zero Custodian legislation
Legislation introduced on Tuesday would enshrine the powers of a Triple Zero Custodian in law, after the role was first established within Wells’s department earlier this year.
The laws would allow the Custodian to oversee the entire Triple Zero network and demand information from telcos through the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
Wells’s department revealed in Senate estimates on Wednesday that Optus had sent two emails about its 18 September outage to an email address which was no longer monitored, meaning the department did not find out about that particular incident until it was informed by ACMA the next day.
Legislating a Triple Zero Custodian would also allow that representative to “monitor Triple-Zero performance, identify risks, respond more quickly to outages and make improvements”, the government said.
“With these new powers for the Triple Zero Custodian, Australians can be assured of more active and effective monitoring of this most vital of services to make sure it meets the community’s needs,” Wells said in a statement.
The government has also asked the three major telcos to take part in a simulated Triple Zero outage run by the National Emergency Management Agency, ahead of bushfire season.
Communications Minister Anika Wells says there are 'no excuses' for telcos suffering Triple Zero outages. Image: YouTube / Parliament of Australia
Telcos face calls for greater penalties
Greens spokesperson for communications, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, said while her party welcomed the introduction of a Triple Zero Custodian “after 18 long months”, it still wanted to see telcos face “far stronger penalties and far stronger regulation”.
“When the legislation comes to the Senate later this month, the Greens will look to increase penalties for these big companies, including criminal penalties,” she said.
“If a deadly incident like [Optus’s 18 September outage] were to happen again, the highest of penalties should be on the table.”
Consumer advocacy group ACCAN (Australian Communications Consumer Action Network) said it welcomed the draft legislation but wanted to see the law strengthened “to hold telcos to account”, including through “significant penalties”.
ACCAN CEO Carol Bennett said the Triple Zero Custodian “should be given additional powers to require service improvements, establish minimum performance benchmarks, and have the capability to engage in real-time monitoring so that whenever an outage occurs, it is identified and dealt with as soon as possible”.
“The Triple Zero Custodian should also be tasked with undertaking periodic and targeted reviews of the entire triple zero system to ensure that contemporary and emerging risks to services are identified and dealt with at the earliest opportunity,” she said.
Optus was fined $12 million in 2024 after its major one-day outage in November 2023 prevented more than 2,000 people from calling emergency services.
Facing calls from the opposition during Question Time on Wednesday to increase penalties for telcos to $20 million per offence, Minister Wells maintained the government had already increased potential penalties for such companies and argued the Coalition's proposals were so far "redundant".
The government also reiterated this week that other new rules set to begin on 1 November will require telcos to report outages in real time to ACMA and emergency services, and to test Triple Zero calls when completing network upgrades and maintenance.
