Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received letters from the honourable member for Macquarie and the honourable member for Lindsay proposing that definite matters of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion today. As required under standing order 46(d), if more than one matter is required for the same day, the Speaker shall select the matter to be read that day. It is my opinion that the one that is more urgent and important is the one prepared by the honourable member for Lindsay, namely:

The Government's tragic failure to ensure the oversight of the vital triple zero ecosystem.

I call upon those honourable members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a tragic circumstance. We have to remember why we are even discussing this. Sadly, four people passed away during an Optus outage, and we are still seeking answers. If there was a gold star for confused tactics today, it would have gone to the Minister for Communications. She is still saying she didn't know about the outage until the Friday, although one of her answers may have suggested she did in fact know on Thursday, but we have an email that was revealed in Senate estimates that actually said her office did find out on the Thursday. Yet she still comes here and declares that we've got it wrong. Her office doesn't have it wrong, the department doesn't have it wrong, ACMA, who is involved, doesn't have it wrong, and certainly she doesn't have it wrong.

She also disclosed that she did hold a press conference on the Saturday and then left the country even though there was a crisis unfolding. And where did she go? She went to New York. Sounds great, doesn't it—the Big Apple. She said she delayed her flight, though. Thanks, Minister, for delaying your flight. You certainly delayed the action that was required to address this serious issue. She also seems a bit confused about whether she should apologise or not and says that she shouldn't meet with the families, because that would be disrespectful. In what world is it disrespectful for a government minister representing the crown not to meet with families who have been devastated by such an outage, such a horrible circumstance that no-one would want to happen in this country in 2025? The minister is lacking empathy—even the press gallery knows; it's no hidden secret—and she's lacking knowledge about the time that she received this notification.

This goes back to 18 September, where there was an outage that impacted 600. Then four people died, and the Optus CEO got up and promised—and the Optus CEO should not get off free here—Australians that he would do everything in his power to hold his organisation to account and find out what went on. Then the minister got up and promised Australians that she would do the same, and then she appointed ACMA, the regulator. But ACMA is actually part of the problem because the emails also reveal that ACMA received notification of the outage on the Thursday but didn't alert the minister's office and the minister. So it's like no-one is talking. No-one can read an email. No-one can pick up the phone when there is a major outage that is impacting so many Australians.

But this is not news. We could see the warning signs. This happened in 2023, when there were no deaths. There was a review, and there were 18 recommendations. We only found out yesterday that a custodian has been in place inside the department of communications since March this year. What was that custodian doing during the outage? What have they been doing during this time? Why didn't they prevent this from happening? Now we've been dragged in here to pass legislation quickly so they can do something in the future but couldn't do it this time. It just doesn't make sense.

We had about 24 hours to review really important legislation to save lives, even though the government has been sitting on this for a year and a half. Now it is urgent and we had to review it overnight. Yet the minister came in here and said she couldn't review recommendations—there were about four of them—in 24 hours and that wasn't fair on us and so we should just pass the bureaucracy. That is what it is. It is bureaucracy within a department overseeing another department. It is pretty much insane. We will do it in the interests of the Australian people, but we wanted to do it better, and we offered the government that today. We offered the government some strengthening of their legislation. All of us on this side came together. People contributed to this on our side because we care about Australians and we want to get this done.

We asked for a triple 0 register so the public can have transparency when outages occur. That's pretty fair enough. I think Australians are always shocked when there's an outage, but it happens more often than not. So a register makes sense. What did the government do? They said no. We asked for the triple 0 system to be put on the critical infrastructure list. We have water, energy and sewage. But when someone's wanting to call triple 0 in their time of greatest need it's not critical? The minister got up today and said: 'That is not important. Why are we even considering that it should be critical infrastructure?' So they said no to that too and that it seems okay that the reporting in their legislation is every six months. Well, something really bad has happened. People have died. We want it every three months and we want the outcomes to be made public.

Finally—and this was a doozy in question time—it's fair enough that Optus has its penalties increased—doubled, in fact. That's fair enough, when people have died. We want $20 million as a fine for each breach. That's fair enough, I think Australians would be calling for that too. But the minister came in here and said: 'What are they doing? We're passing a bill that says $10 million. It was from the beginning of September. You should be coming on board with this because we are already doing it.' This was before the catastrophic outage when four people died. These telcos should be held accountable. Obviously $10 million is not enough to stop this kind of thing happening. I think every Australian would be very happy with $20 million and they would expect it. They would expect us to be putting extra things in place to ensure we are doing anything we can do, pulling every lever we can pull, to make sure this never happens again.

It's inexcusable that the government voted down these commonsense amendments. The minister walked away from our amendments. She's walked out of this chamber now. She's walking away from Australians in their time of greatest need. She also said no to a committee. It's fair enough that we have asked for a committee, for the government, the opposition and crossbenchers to come together and examine this and, most importantly, invite Australians impacted by triple 0 outages to tell their stories. Isn't that what all of us are meant to do—represent our communities from right across Australia? The shadow minister for regional communications has been telling those stories about the regions and how much they're impacted. Those people should have a chance to tell their stories. We should be listening to them from the top of Australia to the bottom and from east to west. But no. The government does not want parliamentarians to hear about the struggles of Australians when they're trying to call triple 0. They don't want to hear from emergency services about what they're going through on the ground, and they said no to this too. Commonsense options from us are presented to the government, and the minister walks out the door. Maybe she's flying overseas again on another junket. When a crisis unfolds, it seems like a standard thing to do.

It is really concerning that the minister walks away from Australians in their greatest time of need and that she places the blame purely on a company when the government, as a regulator, has a big job to do. She appoints ACMA, the regulator, as the investigator when they are part of the failed process. How can the regulator investigate themselves? What is going to be the outcome there? Where's the transparency?

The minister is still saying, even though we have evidence from Senate estimates that her office was aware of an outage on the Thursday, that she knew nothing and that there were welfare checks made. How can you not follow up when you're being told that welfare checks are being made or think that that's not important? When she was asked again today, 'Have you called the families of the victims?' what did she say? 'It's not up to me to do that. That's not my job. It might make them feel uncomfortable. It is an extraordinary time. I'm a new minister. I don't know how to pick up the phone and call people in their greatest time of need.'

So many things went wrong over the last three weeks—firstly, Optus and the outage, where people couldn't make those very important calls. But it does not stop there. We have exposed major faults in our most essential telecommunications service. Every single Australian should be able to pick up a phone and call triple 0 in their greatest time of need. There is nothing more important for a government to do than to protect its citizens, and what this government and this minister are doing now is letting every single citizen down.

Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Every Australian relies on triple 0. This essential service is not one that any Australian ever wants to call, but every single one of those calls should be connected, every time. It is the most critical service of Australia's telecommunications system.

I know so many in this place have been in that situation, as I have, where you do have to call triple 0 because a loved one or just a fellow Australian citizen is in a time of need. I remember having to make that call to triple 0 for my young son, Leo, when he was having a horrible allergic reaction to some food. That's when we discovered that he had severe anaphylaxis. But we were so fortunate. That call was connected, paramedics arrived and he got the public health care that he needed. That is what every Australian should expect when they call our emergency services. It connects Australians to emergency health, fire and policing services. I think in this debate it is worth pausing for a moment to thank all of those who make those services work—the emergency communications officers who are there at the end of the phone line, the paramedics, the firefighters and the police officers. I want to say a big thank you to every Australian worker who is behind Australia's triple 0 service. They keep Australians safe. Every day, hundreds of Australians rely upon that service, which is saving lives, protecting livelihoods and maintaining social cohesion.

That's why I share the Australian public's outrage at the conduct of Optus. Optus should be rightly criticised in this place. They have failed. Optus's failures resulted in a loss of life. It was completely unacceptable that they failed their customers in this way. Hundreds of calls were not connected, and it came after previous failures that severely eroded trust, including this parliament's trust, in Optus, because Optus failed to manage their network and they failed to comply with the law.

Now, for the benefit of the opposition, I want to read some of the quotes from the Chief Executive Officer of Optus. This is what the Chief Executive Officer of Optus, Stephen Rue, said:

On the first night of the upgrade, the steps taken on past successful upgrades of a similar nature were not followed.

That's Optus admitting their failures. Further, the CEO went on to say:

This issue occurred because there was a deviation from established processes.

Again, that's Optus acknowledging that they had failed. And then, further, the CEO said this:

Regardless of where a process is conducted, the issue was that a process was not followed. And to be very clear, the accountability for that rests with Optus.

I think, if that's the CEO of Optus acknowledging the accountability rests with Optus, maybe those opposite could spend a little bit more time demanding proper accountability from the CEO of Optus and the providers of Optus.

I just sat through the remarks of the member for Lindsay, and I thought I'd just address some of the interesting contortions of fact that were in those remarks. Firstly, the member for Lindsay acknowledged that the minister gave a press conference on Saturday 20 September. It is very clear from the speech we saw from the member for Lindsay that she neither watched nor read the transcript of that press conference.

Then we had the member for Lindsay undermine ACMA, the Australian Communications and Media Authority. The member for Lindsay walked in here, in her MPI, and said ACMA was 'part of the problem'. Right now, ACMA is conducting an investigation into what went wrong. To have the member for Lindsay come in here and undermine the authority is a very interesting choice for the opposition leader to have allowed to be made.

Then we had the member for Lindsay acknowledge that the custodian has in fact been in place since March. Again, you wouldn't know that from some of the remarks in the other parts of the speech from the member for Lindsay nor the questions we've seen from those opposite.

Then, apparently, legislating to put further protections and further obligations onto the telecommunications companies wasn't good enough for the member for Lindsay. We saw the opposition in this chamber just a few minutes ago complaining that they had only had 24 hours to read the legislation. Either they want us to act on the first day of parliament since this failure from Optus—that was the choice that we made. That was the choice the government made. We came here in the first sitting of the parliament to act—to legislate. If that's not what the opposition want to do, they should just come out and say so.

In fact, what the member for Lindsay said—I wrote down this quote and reflected on the idea that the government wanted to legislate within the first sitting day of parliament and that those opposite complained about only having had 24 hours to read the legislation. I've read the legislation. A number of people on this side have. If the member from Lindsay can't read it in 24 hours, that's interesting. She said that this requirement was 'pretty much insane'. I don't think that it is 'pretty much insane' for the government to want to strengthen accountability.

The member for Lindsay also—and credit to her on this—did acknowledge that, previously, the minister had already introduced legislation on penalties for telecommunications companies. I think it was an MPI speech that will not stand the test of time.

I want to reiterate. Every telecommunications provider has obligations. This week, the minister had those companies here in this parliament and outlined the existing legislative obligations on those companies, the basic human decency that every telecommunications customer should expect and our expectations as government that Optus, Telstra and TPG Telecom ensure their services are complying with current laws and ensure they are ready for the coming disaster season. But we're comfortable going further, and that's what these laws—which the shadow minister, the member for Lindsay, said were 'pretty much insane'—are about. As the minister said when introducing the bill:

… while telco outages may occur, the law is clear: carriers must always make sure that triple 0 calls still connect by being redirected to alternate mobile towers or infrastructure.

I think it's clear everyone in this place wants accountability from Optus. That's what the Australian public want—for Optus to do their job. That's what the investigation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority—undermined by the member from Lindsay just now—is about, and it will look at Optus's compliance with emergency call service regulations and related rules. And, as ACMA has said, these are the same rules that ACMA found Optus breached in 2022 during a nationwide outage.

I think it's important to note in this debate that these regulations and rules already exist. There is the Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Determination 2019, is the Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages) Industry Standard 2024 and Industry Code C536: Emergency Call Service Requirements. They already exist. I outline that because it's important to note that this is about ensuring that things that Optus should have done but did not do are thoroughly investigated, even if those opposite seek to undermine this investigation, which I think is a very interesting choice to have made.

We learnt two things about the opposition today. First, we learnt from the opposition that they are determined to let Optus off the hook for Optus's failures. We are seeing excuse after excuse for Optus from those opposite. Second, we learnt from those opposite is that they are obsessed emails that have been in the public domain for weeks. We saw, in the final questions from the Leader of the Opposition, questions based on opinion not on quotes.

Again, I think even the opposition would agree that Optus should have told the government on Thursday afternoon. That did not occur. We also want to make sure that we enforce existing laws to telcos. Again, this is about making sure that the existing laws are enforced—something that those opposite are seeking to actively undermine.

Some of those opposite were here in May 2018. That's when an outage happened that affected some 4,000 calls. Did we see any legislative change from those opposite at that point? No. There was not a single legislative change when there was a failure on their watch in 2018. They had a choice, and they chose to do nothing. The Albanese government has a decidedly different approach. We on this side hold Optus to account, and I believe the opposition should start doing the same.

Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I note the comments made by the member for Perth. Of course, this is political. The fact is that it is sad the minister herself is not here to respond to this MPI. This is a serious issue. We take it seriously on this side. Our side is under no illusion that Optus has no responsibility. Clearly Optus is responsible. But the minister is where the buck stops, and that is our point. To continually walk away and point the finger at Optus and say, 'They're responsible, not me,' is absolutely unacceptable.

There is nowhere for the minister to hide. The buck stops, however, with the minister not Optus, not the department and not her staff. We know how serious the outage was. Four people died—four Australians who are no longer with us due to this government's failings. That is a fact. Labor can point the finger at Optus, but, of course, it wasn't Optus's first outage; it was their second. The first, over 18 months ago, was investigated by Richard Bean, who produced a report with 18 recommendations. It was an outage that happened on this government's watch, yet, despite all of that, this negligent Albanese Labor government allowed another failure to happen on their watch.

Westminster tradition, one of the core foundations of this place, makes it very clear that the buck stops with the minister, yet ministerial accountability in the Albanese Labor government is about as strong as a regional mobile phone signal—flaky at best. We are talking today about arguably Australia's most trusted brand: the triple 0 telephone number. Australians rely on triple 0 to ensure that an ambulance, a fire engine or a police officer arrives to assist them as fast as possible.

Let's remember how thin the emergency services workforce is in regional Australia. Farmers, Indigenous Australians and residents of small rural towns live even further from an emergency service than metropolitan Australians do. Regional remoteness is exacerbated by the lack of a reliable mobile phone signal, or no signal at all.

This government has been in office for more than three years, yet we do not have a fit-for-purpose universal service obligation for the 21st century. Telecommunications is an essential service and has been for some time—no different to potable water supply, sewerage and electricity. Without reliable telecommunications, people can get sick and they can die, particularly in regional Australia. Yet, when I moved amendments to make regional telecommunications a specific focus of the new Triple Zero Custodian, Labor weren't interested. They expect regional Australians to trust the government to look out for their interests.

Regional Australians have plenty of reasons not to do that. Everywhere you look at the Labor brand, at federal and state levels—from the reckless renewables rollout to imposing new taxes in Victoria during a drought period, until they were shamed into giving farmers a one-year break—Labor cannot be trusted to look out for the interests of regional Australians. Regional Australians have seen centralisation and closure of local services under Labor governments, particularly in health services. Adding insult to injury, the same Labor governments that have undermined local emergency services have allowed, twice on their watch, the triple 0 service to fail. Regional Australians need reliable triple 0 service, as do all Australians. There is no debate or question about that. I am proud to be part of a coalition on this side of the House, with our colleagues in the Senate, applying the blowtorch of accountability to this government on its failings on the most essential of our essential services: triple 0.

Summer is coming in less than two months time, and in my electorate of Mallee the fire danger period tends to start by the end of October—just a couple of weeks from now. I urge the government to work with the opposition, to be transparent and accountable and build confidence in triple 0 so we do not lose another Australian life.

Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let me be absolutely clear. Optus has failed the Australian people. Optus is the reason we debated legislation today, and its failures are why we have expedited telecommunications reform. I will not be lectured by the moral grandstanding of those opposite in the chamber, trying to gain cheap political points while families are grieving—while a family in my own electorate is grieving; that loss has left a mark on our community and on me personally.

Let me be clear. This outage should never have happened, and it must never happen again. There is an unspoken understanding between Australians and their emergency services that, in their darkest hour of need, help will be only three numbers away. Optus, as one of Australia's largest telecommunications providers, had a clear legal and moral duty to ensure that emergency calls were carried through, regardless of commercial inconvenience. They failed, and Australians paid the price. Lives were lost, faith and trust were shattered, and communities were left to pick up the pieces.

The simple truth is this: Australians expect more; Australians deserve more. They expect accountability—real accountability, not corporate apologies after the fact by sheepish CEOs and not excuses in any capacity, but genuine responsibility by the heads of these corporations for the systems they control and have oversight of, and they are right to demand it.

That is why legislation has been moved by the Minister for Communications as a matter of urgency. The establishment of a Triple Zero Custodian and the new powers given to the Australian Communications and Media Authority by the legislation are incredibly important for Australians. The custodian will oversee the performance of the triple 0 ecosystem, identify risks, coordinate responses and demand accountability, because when every second counts, we cannot afford a system faltering through confusion or delay.

Combined with this, ACMA will have the power to issue binding directions to carriers, carriage service providers and emergency call persons—no more waiting, no more chasing and no more voluntary briefings after the fact. ACMA will be able to demand to demand answers immediately and direct corrective action on the spot.

These changes show that this is a government focused on positive change for Australians and a government determined to ensure that the failures of September 2025 are never repeated. These changes have mandated reporting and transparency, which is just the first step we're taking to ensure the public have confidence that their safety is being treated with the seriousness it deserves.

Every one of us in this chamber has a duty to the people we represent. For some that duty is about policy; for others it is about principle. But on this issue it's about people—people who trust us to ensure that the systems that protect them never fail, people who trust us to act not when it's convenient but when it's critical, and people who trust that, when they call for help, they will not be met with silence.

Triple 0 is more than a number; it is a promise between Australians and the services they need most. It is a promise that, no matter the hour, no matter the circumstance and no matter the location, help will be there. Optus has broken this promise to our constituents. Because of this, I stand firmly with the Minister for Communications in saying that Optus will be held to account. The trust of the Australian people is sacred, and it is our responsibility to restore this trust and then protect it with the legislation passed today. We're doing just that. We are taking those steps. We are saying with one voice that never again will a preventable outage take lives. We are saying that never again will Australians be isolated from emergency services in the time when they need them the most. We are saying that never again will silence stand between an Australian and the help they deserve.

We will continue to build a system worthy of the trust Australians place in it—one that is stronger, more transparent and unbreakable in the moments that matter most. The Australian government is standing up for Australians in all parts of the country and putting the work in to make sure that a telecommunications company like Optus never fails the triple 0 ecosystem ever again. (Time expired)

Simon Kennedy (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Coming to this place in 2022, one of the things I've been most surprised about, perhaps naively, is the level to which people in this chamber see it as appropriate to play politics with the tragedies of others. I think it's something that makes the general public think less of us as politicians—that, even in the case of a tragedy, instead of focusing on addressing the issues and ensuring it doesn't happen again and instead of working together for the betterment of the community and the country, some in this chamber seek to make personal gain, to point score and to undermine. We've certainly seen that this week and now here again.

The Optus triple 0 failure, for over 600 Australians, was a catastrophe. For at least three individuals, their families and their friends, it was literally life or death. In this country, we expect that, when Australians dial triple 0 in an emergency, they can rely on the call being answered. We are privileged. This is one of those expectations we don't even think about, until it doesn't happen. Australians are unfortunately very aware of the recent failures of the Optus services with regard to the triple 0 function, and it just isn't good enough.

Reliable telecommunications are an important part of modern life, and, for the companies involved, a very profitable enterprise. In 2025, Optus's earnings before interest and tax were $446 million, an increase of 55 per cent on the previous year. Their earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation rose by 5.7 per cent in the same year to $2.2 billion. With that level of profit, it's not too much to require them to abide by their legal requirements to provide a reliable essential service to their customers.

It's quite simple. Australian citizens in distress have a reasonable expectation to have access to emergency help. They dial triple 0. That call is answered—police, fire or ambulance. There's no room for ambiguity, delay or failure. That is a social contract telecommunications companies providing these services on a profitable basis have with every customer. The existing regulations require telecommunications carriers and carriage service providers to ensure that emergency calls are successfully carried to the emergency call service at all times. Thanks to changes implemented under this government, telcos are legally required to inform the government of any failures. Under those opposite, when they were in government, there was no requirement for telcos to advise of breaches.

Less than a month ago, approximately 600 emergency calls in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory using the Optus network failed to connect. We're aware of at least three deaths associated with the outage in South Australia and Western Australia. As we debated the bill earlier today, it is their deaths, possibly avoidable—we may never know—that should be foremost in our minds. But, on top of that, around 600 more people tried to call triple 0 and were not able to get through. And you can only imagine the sense of rising panic when people in their worst time tried to call for assistance, not getting through. Most people don't call triple 0 lightly. It is the last resort. When it fails, when you can't get help, it's hard to know what to do next. You're on your own in a situation that is your worst fear. Investigations are ongoing via the communications watchdog, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, and we keenly await their results. We understand anecdotally that it was only when the South Australian ambulance service contacted Optus to report a significant drop-off in triple 0 calls compared to their normal call load that Optus recognised there was a problem and acted to resolve the issue.

There is no doubt the fault lies with Optus. It was their system that failed. Either there was either no backup or checking, or that system failed as well. Sadly, this is just the latest in a series of issues Australians have had with Optus, including a major data breach in 2022, a national outage in 2023 that impacted internet, fixed line and mobile services, including EFTPOS, for more than 10 million Australian customers and businesses for more than 16 hours, and now this. These failures are of Optus and Optus alone. They must do better, and they should not be let off the hook for it. It really wasn't good enough, and Australian citizens paid the price for the failure. While the government awaits the findings of this investigation, I recognise the minister introduced the bill, which was passed earlier today.

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I understand that those opposite have drawn the short straw and have to try and defend the indefensible because the Minister for Communications is missing, but let's make two things quite clear. When three Australians pass away, possibly four, and 600 Australians make that call that nobody wants to make to triple 0 to get the help that they need, when we call out the failings of the Minister for Communications, who is responsible for communications in this country, it is not playing politics. It is called accountability. If you are prepared to put your hand up to be the Minister for Communications in this country, you need to be prepared to take responsibility for the triple 0 emergency system. That is your responsibility. That is your job. Everyone in this House, including the government, backbenchers and ministers, knows this, and, unfortunately for those opposite, they have to run a protection line for a minister who is not up to the job.

They are rightly saying that Optus are at fault. Absolutely, Optus are to blame for this situation, and Optus should be held to account. We should do everything possible to hold Optus to account. In fact, this morning, the coalition, seeking to work in a bipartisan way, put an amendment to this legislation that was very simple and very clear. It sought to double the penalty to Optus from $10 million to $20 million—a very simple amendment. Every person on the opposite side that will stand to speak, every member of this government, made a conscious decision to vote against that amendment and look after Optus. They need to defend that decision to their communities, and they need to defend that decision to those families who lost loved ones and those families that called triple 0 and had it not pick up. They made a conscious choice to protect Optus over the Australian people. So we will not be lectured to about the accountability of Optus. Optus are absolutely accountable. We sought to hold them to account, and this government did not want to work with us in that way.

As I've said, the Minister for Communications is responsible for communications in this country. This minister is so out of her depth. After five months in the portfolio since sitting on the government benches since 2022, she claims that she is a new minister and not able to do her job correctly. We sought to help that minister. We sought to move another amendment to make sure that the triple 0 network was defined as a critical infrastructure and an asset of national significance. That's a very simple amendment. You would think everyone would agree, after listening to the member for Boothby and the member for Spence about how important the triple 0 network is, that it would be critical infrastructure and an asset of national significance. But no—according to the government and those opposite, it is not, because they made the decision to vote against an amendment to make it critical infrastructure and an asset of national significance.

As we come into the bushfire season in my community, disasters are a fact of life. My community will be interested to know that the government doesn't think that it's critical infrastructure and an asset of national significance to be able to call the CFA if there's a bushfire in my community. The coalition knows it is. Again, those opposite will have to go back to their communities. I look forward to those opposite that represent regional and rural communities explaining to their communities how it's not critical infrastructure to be able to call triple 0 to alert the CFA of a fire or to call an ambulance service when your family needs it. They are the facts about what this government decided to do. They are so afraid of scrutiny and the minister is so out of her depth that those opposite voted against an independent committee to make sure that triple 0 would work, that the telcos would be held to account, that ACMA would be held to account and that the minister will be held to account. The minister knows they failed. That's why they voted against an independent committee, and it is a shame and a disgrace for all Australia.

Trish Cook (Bullwinkel, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Tom Venning (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

'Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.' Those words from Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, carry profound weight today. They remind us that the most essential systems must be ready for anything. I rise to speak about the tragic failure of preparation, the collapse of our nation's most fundamental lifeline, triple 0. This is not a technical glitch; it is an issue of profound importance that jeopardises the lives of constituents across regional South Australia. Sadly, that's nothing new under Labor.

The Optus outage was a catastrophic day for all Australians, but, for those living in the country, in remote areas and in the outback, this failure cuts even deeper. The triple 0 network isn't a regular service; it's our only reliable path to emergency help. The network collapse was not brief. It lasted for over 12 hours, during which a staggering 600 calls failed to connect. We know the cost: three deaths, maybe four, including an eight-week-old baby in Gawler in my home state. Think about that moment of crisis—people cut off from health, forced to scramble, find a neighbour on a different network or desperately search for a landline. Before anything else, preparation is the key to success. Alexander Graham Bell was on to something.

As a resident of the northern Yorke Peninsula, I have unique insight into what this borderline-doomsday situation looks like. Earlier this year, the power went out for 24 hours, cutting phone lines, cutting internet and placing essential services into chaos. Only those with generators were able to survive. People were helpless as cell services ran dry. Cars were running out of fuel. Hospitals were on edge. Critical care was on life support. I have it on good authority that, during that 24-hour period, residents were only a matter of minutes away from the full failure of the sewage system in Kadina, Wallaroo and Moonta. But it was the lack of communications that made it all so hard. Unless you have lived it, you really don't know what it feels like to be truly helpless in 2025. It is dystopian.

Broadly, phone service has been significantly reduced in regional SA since Labor came to government. The coalition, on the other hand, has had a strong track record of delivering real solutions to improve regional telecommunications, particularly through initiatives like the Mobile Black Spot Program. Under Rowan Ramsey's tenure in my electorate of Grey, this program delivered 57 mobile phone towers, many on the Yorke Peninsula. In contrast, Labor scrapped the program and have delivered zero new towers—not triple 0, zero. Where was the government's watchdog then? ACMA was asleep at the wheel. The Minister for Communications was not informed of this crisis until a staggering 24 hours later. This is a spectacular failure of departmental and regulatory processes under this minister's watch. Then where was the minister? Having sleepless nights—I don't doubt that. She was, after all, in a city that never sleeps, old New York. And who did this minister appoint to lead this critical investigation? ACMA, the Australian Communications and Media Authority. It's like letting school students mark their own homework. You won't ever get good answers. ACMA was an integral part of a regulatory and oversight process that clearly failed.

If the minister were truly serious about transparency and fixing this life-saving system, she would do what is right: she would commission a full and thorough independent review of the entire triple 0 ecosystem. Nothing less is warranted. We need an external, impartial body with the authority to delve into every corner, every protocol and every point of failure. Only then can we truly understand the full scope of the issues that need to be addressed in the system and, most importantly, ensure that no-one else loses their life.

We are now approaching bushfire season in my electorate. We need a system that is fully functional, with adequate fail-safes, now. For regional communities, who already grapple with less robust infrastructure, triple 0 not working is a death sentence. The Albanese government needs to stop its shambolic response, get its priorities straight and deliver a triple 0 system that works for all Australians, particularly those in regional and remote communities such as the ones I represent.

Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our triple 0 system is an Australian staple and one that all of us have come to rely upon as a given, to be there when we need it. It's well known, it's trusted and it's essential. That's because the triple 0 system saves lives, and that is why it is completely unacceptable to see that system fail during an outage of a telecommunications provider. This simply should not ever happen, and our government has been working hard to make sure that it doesn't.

During the first Optus outage in September, 631 calls could not connect to triple 0, and this cost lives. That is completely devastating, and my heart goes out to those families who tragically lost a loved one. It should not have happened, and it is reprehensible. Then, just 10 days later, came another outage in my region. Nine calls to triple 0 did not go through thanks to the Optus outage in Dapto on 28 September, which was caused by an issue with an Optus mobile phone tower. We were lucky that there do not appear to have been any adverse outcomes for those callers, but that is by pure luck and chance, and we know how easily that can go the other way. One person, I understand, was forced to use someone else's phone to call for an ambulance, so clearly there were other services that could fill that gap, and that is the law. If an outage occurs, emergency calls must be redirected to alternative mobile towers. That is the responsibility of all telcos in Australia. So why weren't they?

Already our government has directed the Australian Communications and Media Authority to investigate what happened to cause these failures. These were Optus's failures, and they are unacceptable. Every telco has a responsibility to ensure that Australians can connect to emergency services when they need to. Optus failed, and we will not only find out why but also hold them to account. The minister has been very clear that there will be consequences, and so there should be.

In the meantime, we have taken action to ensure that this can't happen again. We've introduced the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Triple Zero Custodian and Emergency Calling Powers) Bill 2025. This critical bill will immediately strengthen government oversight of the triple 0 system. It enshrines the Triple Zero Custodian framework into law and gives ACMA powers to act quickly and decisively. It also gives government the ability to step in during outages.

As the minister has said, we have announced six key points to make sure the triple 0 system is as resilient and safe as it can be. We've introduced that legislation. We're introducing real-time reporting of outages to ACMA and to emergency services so that everyone can know when these outages are happening and take steps to address them straightaway.

Telcos will also now be required to test triple 0 during upgrades and maintenance, and there will be new requirements to fully ensure that triple 0 calls will go through to another network—something the law already requires. We will make sure they meet it. Additionally, there will now be mandatory improvement plans after triple 0 outages, and the new custodian will issue additional performance requirements to telcos, through ACMA, within six months of these new laws. This is decisive action. This is tough action. This will make sure that Australians can be confident that triple 0 will be there for them when they need it.

Minister Wells has worked hard on this. She has worked fast on this. Our government is taking the action that we need to right now. Under these laws, ACMA will have new statutory powers to issue binding directions to carriers, carriage service providers and emergency call persons. It will be able to mandate specific actions and it will ensure that all stakeholders are informed as soon as possible to ensure a coordinated response.

I reiterate: this is a failing of Optus. The law already required that triple 0 calls not fail, and Optus has let our community down. Under the new laws, telcos will face significant consequences—as they should—if they don't act as they must, if they don't provide the information that they must during an outage. We take this seriously, and this new bill demonstrates that. I would encourage those opposite to stop playing political games and get on board with what our government has done. Fast, strong and effective action to protect all Australians. That's what we will continue to do because that's what all Australians deserve.

Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The discussion is now concluded.