Simon Kennedy (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Spence is partially right. Yes, Optus is at fault, but so is the government. Today, the member for Spence and the entire government voted against doubling the penalty on Optus. We proposed to double the penalty on Optus and any telco who puts lives at risk. Yet so keen was this government to deflect and to push politics that it voted against that amendment—against punishing Optus and against punishing future telcos. Shameful! They were so focused on blame deflection that they voted against making triple 0 critical infrastructure.

Yes, unfortunately, this is not about politics; this is about people. When people call triple 0, they expect someone to answer. They expect help. Unfortunately for 600 people who tried to call triple 0, no-one answered, and they could not get help. We know that, unfortunately, three of those people who called, or three people related to those people, died.

The sad thing about this outage is that it was preventable. We heard the member for Spence talk about the custodian. We heard about the great powers this custodian will have. Yes, they should have those powers. Unfortunately, a review was done 18 months ago that noted the need for this custodian and the need for the powers. We had the first speaker for the government say, 'Oh, we rushed this through in 24 hours.' Unfortunately, they knew about this 18 months ago, yet this custodian was being set up without the powers it needed. This should have been monitored 24/7. The second this went out, it should have been known to the government. The custodian should have known and should have been able to act. How did this go on for 14 hours, and why are we rushing it through? We're closing the gate after the horse has bolted. Now, what we're seeing here is a minister who is reactive not proactive, a government that's reactive not proactive, a government that's keen to play politics but very reluctant to get into policy.

Unfortunately, this is not the only area of this minister's portfolio where this is happening. People are also dying in other areas. On gambling reform, it's been 833 days since the Murphy report, which looked at the harms of online gambling. This minister is also responsible for this report and has failed to act. I have personally listened to family members in this parliament who've come here to tell stories about their loved ones who have killed themselves. I heard a sister and some parents read the suicide note of a young man who took his own life, unable to escape gambling ads and text messages—the guilt he had as they read through page after page of this young man's suicide note.

We heard this government say last term that they would act on it before Christmas. We're already up to another Christmas and we've got a minister here who again is refusing to act, who is being reactive not proactive and who is playing politics instead of addressing policy. Well, enough is enough. Australians deserve a government that takes responsibility. Australia deserves a government that will take responsibility for triple 0. Australians deserve to be able to trust their government. But we have a minister missing in action. The minister is missing from this MPI today. I would like to think, if this were any other person's portfolio, they would sit through it. They would sit through the shadow minister's speech to hear what they had to say. But she's missing in action. She's missing from the debate on triple 0. She's missing from the Murphy review. This is a minister who has no answers at all and is just playing politics.

I'll take the laughter over there. I'll take the laughter when they've been sitting on a report for 18 months and done nothing. They've been sitting on the Murphy report for 833 days, and they have the gall to laugh. Well, Australia doesn't want jokes; it wants action. Enough is enough.

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