Trish Cook (Bullwinkel, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the triple 0 legislation that we have passed today in this House. This bill is about the most fundamental promise a government can make: that when you are in peril and you reach out for help, your call will get through. As a remote-area nurse and member for Bullwinkel, a bushfire-prone area, I know the value of triple 0 all too well. In 2014, my communities in my electorate of the Perth Hills were devastated by the Parkerville-Stoneville-Mount Helena fire—a fire that, before it was extinguished, tore through the community, destroying 57 homes and scarring the landscape and the people for years to come. At that time, and in times of reporting any fire activity and other emergencies, our phones are everything and the one thread that we cling to. To imagine that thread being cut is to imagine the unimaginable.

That terror became a reality for 631 Australians during the Optus outage a few weeks ago. It was a catastrophic failure of a private company to meet its most basic social obligation, and it's completely unacceptable. The Albanese Labor government acted swiftly. We acted decisively, and, unlike those in the opposition, our priority is protecting Australians, not protecting corporate interests. And let's be clear about what we're seeing from the opposition. They seem hell-bent on letting Optus off the hook and wasting parliament's time, waving around old emails to manufacture a political scandal. But the record is clear: this outage was the fault of Optus and Optus alone, and they will be held accountable for the 631 calls that went unanswered and, sadly, the three or four deaths which resulted. But their failure has exposed a deeper problem: a decade of neglect under the previous government. The warning signs were flashing for years. In May 2018, under the coalition, there was an outage affecting 4,000 calls, and what was their response? Nothing. No laws were changed. No custodian was created.

We cannot hope to do things; we need to act. Our government is cleaning up that decade of neglect, and this bill today is the product of our swift action. It is our government's answer to the question 'Who is watching out for Australians?' This bill ensures that a triple 0 custodian, a guardian of this sacred service, is enshrined in law, not just policy. It gives our communications watchdog, ACMA, the teeth it needs to hold massive corporations to account. The bill gives our government the power to step in during a crisis to demand answers and to direct action. Because of the swift action of this government, this bill turns policy into legislation, into certainty, and it's our promise that the lifeline of triple 0 will be available when needed.

I take this opportunity to thank all the workers who man the triple 0 calls, including my next-door neighbour, Amanda. It can be a very stressful job, and they play a crucial role in saving lives on a daily, if not hourly, basis.

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