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

I rise today to speak on the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Triple Zero Custodian and Emergency Calling Powers) Bill 2025. What a disgraceful display of behaviour by those opposite, refusing to have scrutiny in this parliament when it comes to the triple 0 network and allowing all those Australians who have experienced triple 0 outages, our emergency services personnel to have their say, or to have light shone onto the disasters that have been happening in the triple 0 network—the crisis of the triple 0 network.

We are here today discussing this because we have a rushed piece of legislation. It's policy on the run in its worst form. This legislation is far from perfect. If it had been moved to 18 months ago—even 12 months ago—would it have stopped the September outage, when four lives were lost? We haven't even had time, because it came to us with less than 24 hours notice to stress test or scenario test it. Those scenario tests will now have to happen in real life, and with that come extraordinary risk as to whether the legislation will actually work.

We are only debating this today because of the catastrophic Optus outage that happened on 18 September this year. This was no ordinary outage. This outage went on for around 13 hours. It was completely undetected. People in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory were unable to call triple 0 in their greatest time of need. There were warning signs that this was going to happen, but those were ignored. There were customer complaints to the Optus call centre from people who couldn't connect to triple 0, yet none of these raised an immediate red flag. It astounds me that anyone who calls their telco provider saying they can't get through to triple 0 is not taken seriously. It is completely unacceptable.

From the information we have right now, more than 600 calls failed to connect with emergency services during that 13-hour outage. But we don't know if that is all. We don't know with any certainty how many more there might be. Tragically, as I said, four people lost their lives. Their families and their friends are mourning the loss of their loved ones. This is not politics; this is real life. People have died. And it breaks all of our hearts here. I cannot emphasise enough how absolutely and unequivocally unacceptable this outage was, and the way it was handled by everyone involved is a disgrace. Optus has failed Australians. They have failed in not detecting this abhorrent error in their systems, which denied Australians in emergency situations connection to help—help that we promise will be there in people's greatest time of need. This is a service which the minister yesterday agreed is the most critical service in our telecommunications system. Optus also failed to tell Australians what was going on for more than 32 hours after this catastrophic failure of their network. They have failed to be open and transparent about what actually went wrong.

On Saturday 19 September, the CEO of Optus, Stephen Rue, promised he would provide daily updates. He fronted of the media just three more times—then radio silence. I have tried to secure a meeting with the CEO twice now—more radio silence. He did have time to meet with the minister yesterday and Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. I hope they had a nice cup of tea. Optus have said this was human error. What does this even mean? Did someone forget to flick a switch, plug something in or code something correctly in their systems upgrade? What was this error, and how can we ensure it doesn't happen again? It is everyone's guess right now, because no-one is talking—19 days on, we know a little more than we did on the evening of 19 September.

But Optus are not the only ones who have failed here. They are not the only ones whose systems are broken. The department of communications and the regulator, ACMA, have also failed. Exactly what did they do with the first notifications that came through on 18 September from Optus? Optus had to let them know by law. What on Earth did they do with the subsequent emails that Optus sent that provided updates on the outage? These are the questions that I have been asking for three weeks, yet the department and the regulator, ACMA, are unwilling to speak about it. That old adage that silence is the greatest admission of guilt has never been more true. Worse—the Albanese Labor government have been praying that this would just go away. In fact, the Minister for Communications has found plenty of time to go to New York and the AFL grand final in Melbourne and attend last week's NRL grand final in Sydney, just to name a few. We have the selfies to prove it. But she didn't have time to tell you, the people of Australia, who are dependent on triple 0 in your greatest time of need, what she is doing to protect you and to fix this broken triple 0 system.

Yesterday in question time, the Minister for Communications was asked to confirm that neither she nor her office was notified of the catastrophic outage that occurred on Thursday 18 September before the afternoon of 19 September when Optus advised the media. The minister stood here, right across from where I am now and said:

Yes; I can confirm we were not notified of the catastrophic outage until late afternoon on Friday 19 September.

Let me tell you where that story falls apart. On 25 September, David Swan from the Age newspaper published a story titled 'The emails that reveal how Optus downplayed the triple zero disaster'. In this article, Mr Swan cites two emails sent by Optus to the minister's staff at 2.45 pm and 2.52 pm on Thursday 18 September—a whole day prior to what the minister stood here yesterday in question time and told the Australian public was when she knew about it.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That can't be right, surely?

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

This is the question that the minister should be answering—it can't be right. These first alerts, although lacking in detail, said that services were down in South Australia and Western Australia and that welfare checks were being conducted. Calls to triple 0 had been impacted. The minister's office was notified directly by Optus. This was the first warning sign; it was ignored.

The minister has spoken strongly of the need to rebuild trust and confidence in the triple 0 network, so Australians can have faith that the service will work. Let me tell you, on behalf of the thousands of Australians who have contacted me about this, when every single player in this catastrophic event—Optus, ACMA as the regulator, the department of communications and the minister and her office—has failed to fess up about what they knew when, this is not rebuilding trust. Like rubbing salt in a wound, the minister has tasked ACMA as the regulator to investigate the outage. How on earth can ACMA investigate themselves? How on earth can ACMA investigate what went wrong when they are part of the failed process? What kind of alternate universe are you living in on that side of the House? We may have taken a walloping at the last election, but the arrogance of those on that side of the House is appalling. Wake up to yourselves. It's time to get off your backsides, out of cloud nine, and start delivering for the Australian people. They need to have reliability. They need to have security. They need to be able to call triple 0 in their greatest time of need.

According to the minister, the triple 0 custodian has been operational since March this year in her department—the very same department that got the alert email from Optus the day of the outage and did nothing with the email. What exactly has this person or persons been doing since March? Clearly not checking their emails from Optus about a triple 0 outage where four people have died. What astounds me most is that it's taken yet another absolute crisis with Optus to get this weak, lazy Albanese government off their backsides, and they still don't have a clue. If the role was established back in March, why wasn't it legislated then? If the role was fully operational back in March without legislative authority, why does it need it now? And how much are Australian taxpayers paying for this custodian who can't even check an email? This is nothing but a dog-and-pony show from this arrogant government, who think they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, and nothing is going to happen. Nothing to see here.

You failed to act back in 2023, but at least the former communications minister, now the Attorney-General, had the good sense to do an independent investigation. The current minister has refused to do this at every turn, and, like a broken record on repeat, the minister has continued to say that ACMA is the appropriate body—even though they're involved in the broken process and the failure to do the investigation. They are not the appropriate body. It is clear to everyone. They failed to alert the minister when the first warning bells were rung. Why is this not important? Why is the minister not holding them to account? ACMA and the minister's department have failed to brief. They have failed to update the minister on the Bean review recommendations and where they are at. The minister said on Saturday that 12 recommendations were completed. The minister said yesterday that 13 recommendations had been completed.

An honourable member: Another quick one!

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! We can do without the echo, thanks.

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

Details matter here. Details do really matter. People's lives are at risk. You've got to be across your brief; you've got to get it together. With something this important, this is absolutely critical. So here we are. The bill is being rushed through parliament at 10 seconds to midnight because this government wants to appear like it is doing something.

The government's failure to act on the recommendations of the Bean review, which it accepted and agreed to in full 18 months ago, is lazy and shows disregard for our vital triple 0 network. This bill, at face value, does little more than add bureaucratic layers to an existing process that already has multiple failure points. I implore you to do a full review of the triple 0 ecosystem. I implore the minister to conduct that independent review. Find out the failure points, fix them and ensure that this system works. The minister cannot continue to patchwork quilt or apply bandaids to something that isn't working. Australians deserve more. They expect more. It is on the minister as the steward of the system to deliver that, and I won't stop. I won't back down. It might get annoying to some, but, when a system so important is broken, you need to do your job. You need to fix it.

I foreshadow that I will be moving detailed amendments to strengthen this bill, even though we have been given 24 hours notice, because, unlike those opposite, I want to properly fix and protect the triple zero network. Colleagues on this side have been doing all they can over those few hours to contribute to fixing the system, because we care. We care about Australians when they are in their greatest need. People are depending on us to get this right, so we will support this bill and I implore—I deeply, deeply mean it—the Albanese Labor government to support my amendments. We come across a little bit aggressive now, but it's because we care about Australians, and we're moving these amendments because we know they will strengthen this bill. Albert Einstein is reported to have said, 'The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is arrogance.' Don't let it blind your actions here. Do what is right and what will ensure that all Australians are safe and they can call triple 0 when they really need it.

Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm really disgusted to hear people suggest that this isn't something that Labor is taking seriously and that this government isn't doing everything it can to ensure that people can access triple 0 when they need it, from wherever they need it. I know it's tempting to play politics with something like this. I am particularly disgusted, though, when it is human lives that have been lost here in an awful, awful situation where Optus has failed. We will be holding Optus to account on its failures, and I would have thought any suggestion otherwise was beneath the member for Lindsay, but clearly not.

I've had to dial triple 0 on very few occasions, but when I have had to do it it has been with a real and urgent need. The first time was when my then one-year-old was in a car seat in the car, and I turned around to get him out of the car and he was limp and non-responsive. My brain just fried: 'What do I do here?' Obviously, dialling what we called 'triple O' back then but is much more commonly known as 'triple zero' now was my response. What an incredible service it was to have the operator talk me through what I should be doing with this absolutely non-responsive child, who, as it turned out, was having a febrile convulsion. The operator talked me through bathing him and cooling him in water while I was waiting for an ambulance. It was a horrible experience.

No-one who has ever called triple 0 will have done it for anything other than a really urgent and distressing situation, so we know how important this is. For most of us, the occasions when we do it are few but frightening. What the hundreds of people who tried to call 000 felt when Optus failed to allow their calls to connect would have been shock, and I've heard them describe it as shock, absolute disbelief and total fear that they weren't able to get through. That should never be the case, and that's why we are going to get to the bottom of what has happened here. But you can't just use this interim period to hypothesise and speculate about what it might have been. It was so devastating for the people involved and their families.

We know Optus have to be held accountable for the September outage and that they have to do better, and that's why ACMA, the communications watchdog, is investigating, so we all get the full facts of what happened. But, while we are waiting for the findings of that investigation, we've brought forward the introduction of this bill, the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Triple Zero Custodian and Emergency Calling Powers) Bill 2025, to immediately strengthen government oversight of the triple 0 ecosystem. The bill is about prevention. It's about preventing tragedies like the outage in September from being repeated, by enshrining the Triple Zero Custodian framework in law. The function has been administratively established within the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Communications, Sport and the Arts, but this now enshrines it in law, and it empowers ACMA with the tools that it needs to act swiftly.

The reforms improve coordination across the triple 0 ecosystem, and they give government the ability to step in decisively during outages. I think we have to be really clear, though, that Optus and all telecommunications providers already have obligations under Australian law to ensure they carry emergency services calls. That is already in law. The bill will strengthen the oversight that these obligations are being met.

One of the things that will come in is a requirement for the testing of procedures. The sorts of things that we're going to see here will be in that prevention phase, ensuring that it is more rigorous and that there is more confidence in the processes that are in place. The custodian will drive changes that will reduce the likelihood of these sorts of incidents in the future. They'll give government greater insight into the system, and I think it will go a long way to rebuilding public confidence in triple 0—although, as I say, we need to see, in addition, the outcome of the ACMA investigation into this latest occurrence.

Let's talk a bit about the statutory powers of this bill. It gives ACMA new statutory powers so they'll be able to issue binding directions to carriers, carriage service providers and emergency call persons. These directions may require information such as the cause and scale of outages, restoration plans, and policies and procedures affecting triple 0. The bill also empowers ACMA to mandate specific actions, like improving notification processes or sharing data with emergency service organisations. This would ensure that all relevant stakeholders are informed quickly when there is a problem and that responses are coordinated effectively.

There are also civil penalties that come into effect with this bill. The civil penalty regime supports ACMA's new powers. Telcos and other providers will face significant consequences if they fail to provide information or act as directed during an outage. The penalty framework underscores the seriousness of obligations under the bill and reinforces the government's commitment to protecting Australians by ensuring that triple 0 is reliable and resilient. That is, at the end of the day, our belief as to what this system has to offer—reliability and resilience.

We've been very focused on one particular aspect of triple 0 and the failure that occurred with the Optus outage. Periurban communities like mine in Macquarie are bushfire prone and flood prone and have long, lonely roads and sparse populations. Our communities highlight why that reliability is so important and why resilience is so important. So, when I look at this legislation, I see it in a context of a whole range of things that the Albanese government has been doing to increase reliability and resilience in really difficult situations, emergency situations. Triple 0 needs to work reliably when there is massive demand, such as in a bushfire or a flood. It needs to be accessible in quite remote areas.

Just recently, only 20 kilometres north of Wisemans Ferry, just outside Sydney, residents were unable to phone triple 0 at the site of a tragic double-fatality car crash, when a car went into the Macdonald River. As Macdonald Valley resident Siobhan Mahoney described, on reaching the scene of the accident, which occurred late at night, she couldn't get reception, so she had to drive and get help via wi-fi. These are her words:

We had to waste time trying to get a signal and then eventually I came home to where we have Starlink, and that's how I managed to get hold of emergency services.

When I think about our constituents—and I know the member for Indi would face similar challenges—in nonurban areas trying to access emergency support, there are many things that are part of solving that problem. This legislation is one piece of it, but there are others. Siobhan in the Macdonald Valley didn't need to imagine what goes through your mind when you can't connect to triple 0; she experienced it. I have heard many similar stories over the last decade, including on roads like Putty Road and Bells Line of Road. Everyone, no matter where you are in the 21st century, should be able reach triple 0 in this country. It should be a given. That's why I have been so focused on improving the telecommunications infrastructure in Macquarie and having better and more reliable connectivity.

In the wake of the Black Summer bushfires, there has been significant additional funding, and recommendations from the royal commission supported that. That's resulted in a hardening of infrastructure in the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury, and that's both mobile infrastructure and NBN infrastructure, both of which provide really essential communications. We've got improved power backup. There's better coverage, particularly based on the Albanese government investment in new towers in places like Macdonald Valley and Hawkesbury Heights. Very soon the Mount Tomah mobile tower will be switched on. This provides coverage on a really busy and key part of the Bells Line of Road, which is used by people coming from the central west through to Sydney as well as by local users.

There is still work to be done on Yellow Rock and a number of other sites, but these are improving. But there is so much more to do, and I think the crucial next step is the universal coverage obligation that we committed to during the election. The draft legislation is out for discussion. What it means is that outdoor coverage will be accessible almost anywhere Australians can see the sky. It will require mobile carriers to provide reasonable access to mobile voice and text outdoors almost everywhere in Australia. The reforms obviously are going to benefit peri-urban communities like mine but also more regional and remote communities, and it's expected that the changes will help add more than five million square kilometres of basic outdoor mobile text and voice coverage across Australia. The way it will happen is that operators are expected to use a combination of their existing services and emerging direct-to-device technology provided through the low-Earth-orbit satellites, the LEOsats, to expand that baseline outdoor mobile coverage. So, for those in my community who want to give feedback to that, there is an opportunity to do that by later this month.

This piece of legislation today is part of a suite of things that are so vital to communities like mine—peri-urban areas that can be some of the most disaster prone places but also have a high number of users of roads and accidents on well-used but not always best-maintained and highest-grade roads through quite sparsely populated areas. We do need to have a triple 0 custodian who can have the oversight on this aspect of it. No doubt, as we get this new technology happening, as new things come in, their remit will expand to ensure that, whatever the mode of communication, whether you're dialling triple 0 through a LEOsat, whether you're using your wi-fi through your NBN or whether you're using your mobile phone or your landline, you have the ability to connect to the services that you need most. I commend this bill to the House.

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Triple Zero Custodian and Emergency Calling Powers) Bill 2025. The bill is welcome, but the circumstances in which it has been introduced are definitely not. This urgent bill responds to yet another catastrophic triple 0 Optus outage. In the past two weeks, Australians have experienced two serious Optus outages, leaving customers without coverage for hours at a time. Hundreds of calls failed to go through, and, tragically, at least three deaths have been linked to people unable to reach emergency services. No greater failure could be linked to any telecommunications company than that.

Australians should be confident that when they dial triple 0 the call will go through, but right now Australians can't hold that confidence. The Australian people are looking not only for answers but also for action. Ultimately it is the government's and the minister's responsibility to ensure that laws are applied to our telecommunications providers, and clearly the laws are failing in serious ways, and that is completely unacceptable. When one system fails, like Optus did here, your phone is meant to connect to another network. Now, we don't yet know why that didn't happen. This need for backup systems is also why roaming during emergencies is essential. If Optus goes down during a bushfire or because of an outage, Telstra or another carrier must be able to pick up the call, allowing people to access emergency information or, critically, make a life-saving triple 0 call. I'll return to this later.

Unfortunately, we've been here before. When ACMA, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, conducted an investigation into the nationwide Optus outage in 2023 it found that 2,145 people could not access triple 0 and that 369 welfare checks were not conducted. Optus paid penalties totalling more than $12 million, although I have to say—and I say this very strongly—that this is an absolutely insignificant amount of money for a multibillion-dollar corporation, and I would support any move to make that penalty much stronger.

Following the 2023 outage, the government appointed the former deputy chair of ACMA to conduct an inquiry into the outage, which resulted in 18 recommendations to address structural issues in the emergency call system, known as the Bean review. The review's key recommendations were to share real-time outage information across stakeholders and to establish a Triple Zero Custodian to set standards and compel cooperation. As we know, the government accepted all 18 recommendations in April 2024. But here we are, 18 months later, and several remain to be fully implemented.

Following the last absolutely unacceptable outage, the minister has moved to fast-track the establishment of the Triple Zero Custodian in the legislation that we have before us and to give ACMA new powers to hold the telcos to account. Of course I welcome this, and I welcome this bill, and I will support its passage through the House. But I criticise the government most strongly for its slow implementation of key outstanding Bean review recommendations.

This bill amends the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999 to establish a permanent Triple Zero Custodian within the government. The custodian will have powers to request that ACMA direct industry in relation to the emergency call system. The aim is to clearly establish the custodian as the end-to-end oversight body of the emergency call system. First, the bill gives ACMA powers to compel carriers, carriage service providers and emergency call system actors to disclose detailed information about an incident, including the cause of a failure, which services and regions are affected, restoration time frames and its communications to the public. If the custodian requests action, ACMA must issue direction within a set time frame and provide the information and analysis back to the custodian. These are binding directions, with civil penalties available for noncompliance.

Third, the bill sets out how information gathered under these powers can be used and shared. The custodian and ACMA can share relevant information with emergency services and with the National Emergency Management Agency—importantly—as well as with state authorities and others to help respond to outages or improve the system. And fourth, the bill requires ACMA to provide biannual reports to the minister on the actions it's taken in relation to emergency call systems and the Triple Zero Custodian. The bill will also enable the minister to launch a review into the effectiveness of the new custodian arrangements in two years time.

I support this bill because recent Optus outages have shown all Australians just how fragile our telecommunications systems can be and how quickly this fragility can put lives at risk when things go wrong. But let's be clear. This bill will help, but it won't fix this problem. Ensuring our telecommunications systems are resilient and futureproof will require much more action by this government, and I will be relentless in holding them to account for this, because, unfortunately, this fragility is something people in regional Australia know far too well. We already live with outages during storms, bushfires and floods. Communities in my electorate of Indi know exactly how dangerous it is to be cut off, whether it's for an hour, for a day or, in some circumstances, even for a week.

That's why I've been fighting for a more resilient system since I was first elected in 2019. People deserve confidence that, when disaster strikes, their phones will work, their call will get through and their community will stay connected. During an emergency, this is doubly true. While good communications can save lives, bad communications can cost lives. Unfortunately, Indi's heightened disaster risk means that communication outages are frequent. Indi is mountainous, heavily forested and prone to widespread and devastating bushfires. We were devastated both in the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires and again in the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires. North-east Victoria is also susceptible to riverine and flash floods, with major river systems such as the Murray, the Goulburn, the King, the Ovens, the Broken and the Yea rivers traversing the electorate. In towns like Wangaratta, Yea and Benalla, floods are a fact of life.

During the Black Saturday and Black Summer bushfires, people's safety and survival often depended on whether a phone call got through to triple 0 or whether an emergency warning reached them in time, and this was true for Grant and Alice Stinear, who gave me significant evidence during the recent RTIRC review last year. They live in Buxton in the south of my electorate, and they credit their landline for saving their lives during the Black Saturday bushfires 15 years ago. When the mobile network had gone down, and with the fire fast approaching, it was through their landline that the call to evacuate got through. But today their landline has fallen completely into disrepair. They have little confidence their mobiles will work during a bushfire, and they told my office that, despite all the technological progress of the last decade, the Stinears are less confident than they were 15 years ago that a life-saving message will reach them when it's most needed. What a failure of government!

This is a widely felt sentiment in Indi. No matter where I go across the 29,000 square kilometres of my electorate, I hear loud and clear from the community that regional telecommunications are inadequate, particularly during emergencies. Recent outages like those caused by Optus only reinforce this belief. When outages do occur, backup generators and batteries aren't lasting long enough. It's why in the 2025 election I put forward a policy to require at least 24 hours of power backup for all mobile towers in high-risk areas. This is so important because, when mobile phone towers don't have sufficient power backup, entire towns become isolated. People can't contact emergency services, nor can they contact each other, and I will continue to call on the government to implement this policy. It's a no-brainer. It's been costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office at around $159 million to provide potentially life-saving upgrades to 3,200 high-risk sites. Get on and do it.

It's why I fought for communities in my electorate affected by the 3G shutdown who saw their connectivity go backwards. It's completely unacceptable. It's why I support the universal outdoor mobile obligation, which has the potential to make universal mobile access for Australians a reality. I've supported the government's trials of voice services through the low-Earth-orbit satellites, including tests at the alpine resort of Falls Creek in my electorate. It's why I'm pushing for further funding for projects that increase local communications resilience. Community energy nodes and public wi-fi projects are already benefiting towns such as Jamieson in my electorate, and additional funding for such initiatives will support life-saving communication and essential economic activity during prolonged outages. It's why I've been calling for temporary disaster roaming as a priority reform, and I'm not the only one. It was recommended by the Senate's 2023 Connecting the country report and by the ACCC's 2023 Regional Mobile Infrastructure Inquiry. The Bean review recommended that any temporary disaster roaming must be expanded even further to include outages such as those recently caused by Optus. How many inquiries—how many recommendations—before we get the action?

In my own 2024 submission to the Regional Telecommunications Review, I called for disaster roaming before the next severe fire season, which, at the time, was before the end of 2024. Well, here we are, about to walk into our next bushfire season with no sign of this reform. There has been no public update for two years. Fire season—I cannot emphasise this enough—is fast approaching, and it is completely unacceptable, because an emergency roaming system is commonsense. It is the solution of commonsense for remote, mountainous regions like Indi and for regional communities right across Australia. It would enable a phone to connect to any network during an emergency, no matter which telco you are with.

We know that temporary disaster roaming is possible. In the United States, the Mandatory Disaster Response Initiative requires carriers to let customers roam onto another network during declared disasters. Those powers were activated during Tropical Storm Debby and Hurricane Helene in the second half of 2024. This can be done. In Chile, the national automatic roaming system requires telcos to share their networks in remote regions so people can make calls and receive essential information no matter their provider. So why not Australia? In Canada, the government required telecommunications providers to sign an agreement that facilitates emergency roaming and mutual aid during disasters and major network outages. That's not Australia. Frankly, it is not acceptable that in Australia—in our country—in 2025, your choice of mobile provider determines whether you can access emergency information during a natural disaster.

Are we satisfied with this? I sure as heck am not satisfied with this. The VicEmergency app, for example, relies on a mobile data connection, and we must have access to it during a disaster. During a bushfire or storm, regional Australians need to be able to make a call through whatever network is available, not the one they're signed up to. Parents need to know a call will get through to their child if they're apart. When I asked the current Minister for Communications about this crucial reform this week in question time, we were told that simulation drills would occur in the coming weeks. Well, that's a welcome update, but there is no time left to stall, because, folks, this is not a drill. This is real. We have been stalling in this country for more than two years since these reviews. The government have been stalling. We need to get on with this. It can no longer be the case that you just choose your own adventure if you're a telco. The government must compel the telcos to deploy disaster roaming as soon as possible. My communities can't accept further delays and neither can I.

The bill before the House will improve the functioning of the emergency call system, and on that basis I welcome it. Australians do not have confidence in the triple 0 system, and this must change. It is unacceptable, and both the government and the telcos are responsible. The government must move quicker to implement the key recommendations of the Bean review, including temporary disaster roaming. Other countries have done it; we must do it too. We can't lag any more. I commend the member for Mallee for the amendments she's about to put before the House. I will be supporting them. We all need to step up here but no-one more than the telecommunications companies and this government. Stop making excuses, and stop making Australia some kind of exceptional circumstance and risking our lives.

Tom French (Moore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Triple Zero Custodian and Emergency Calling Powers) Bill 2025. This bill represents something simple yet profound: the guarantee that, when Australians dial triple 0, help is always within reach. It says that, in a country as advanced as ours, no person should ever hear silence at the other end of an emergency call. I commend the Minister for Communications, the Hon. Anika Wells MP, for her leadership in driving this reform.

This bill ensures Australians can rely on triple 0 in every community, including those I'm proud to represent in Moore. It establishes the office of the Triple Zero Custodian, an independent authority responsible for the integrity of our emergency call system. The custodian will oversee the service end to end, ensuring it works, carriers cooperate and accountability never falls through the cracks.

This reform is not theoretical. It comes directly from the lessons learned after the Optus outages of November 2023 and September 2025, events that left millions affected and some unable to reach triple 0. Those failures were unacceptable. They exposed a system with no single custodian, no unified command and no authority to coordinate carriers in real time. The Bean review, commissioned by this government, made it clear Australians deserve better. This bill delivers on what that review recommended—clarity, authority and accountability. It gives the ACMA new powers to direct industry participants when an emergency network is at risk. It allows lawful, rapid information sharing between carriers and government during crises, and it mandates transparency through annual reporting and ministerial oversight.

Together, these reforms will rebuild trust in one of the nation's most fundamental services, because, when you dial triple 0, you aren't calling a corporation; you are calling your community. You are calling the police officer, the paramedic or the firefighter, people who run towards danger while most of us run to safety. This bill gives them what they need most: a system that doesn't fail when seconds count. Those seconds can mean the difference between life and loss.

From Joondalup Health Campus to Hillarys Boat Harbour, our community depends on reliable communications to stay safe. Joondalup Police Station, Joondalup and Duncraig fire stations, St John and Joondalup depot rely on fast, accurate networks to coordinate responses. Our surf lifesaving clubs, Sorrento and Mullaloo, need to stay connected to emergency dispatchers. Our Whitfords volunteer sea rescue crew, operating from Hillarys and Ocean Reef, rely on uninterrupted contact with water police. Across Kingsley, Padbury, Craigie and Woodvale, families rest easier knowing that, if something goes wrong, triple 0 will answer.

This bill ensures that confidence is justified. It makes clear who is responsible when technology fails and ensures the right information reaches the right hands at the right moment. For too long, telecommunications law has lagged behind the technology it was meant to regulate. It never contemplated smartphones, Voice over Internet Protocol or cloud based routing across continents. This bill changes that, delivering accountability that has been missing for too long.

The custodian will coordinate between the ACMA, carriers and emergency call persons—Telstra and the National Relay Service—ensuring a single national view of performance and risk. They will hold industry to account and drive improvements before failure occurs. If a failure does occur, they will have the authority to act decisively and not wait for permission. That's the kind of reform Australians expect from a responsible government, from a Labor government.

This bill also strengthens the ACMA's powers to issue binding directions during emergencies. It allows the regulator to compel information quickly and direct carriers to restore services or implement workarounds without delay. In a crisis, every minute counts. We cannot afford bureaucratic ping-pong between regulators and providers. This bill ends that confusion. It puts the chain of command on paper and into practice. The custodian must report annually to the Minister for Communications and provide data for publication. Australians will know for the first time how the triple 0 system performs. Sunlight builds trust, and trust saves lives. Those opposite talk about transparency while using torches. We are hard-wiring the lights.

This bill is not just about technology; it's about people. When a nurse at Joondalup Health Campus calls for back-up, that's someone's family member whose life hangs in the balance. When a skipper off Ocean Reef issues a mayday, it's not statistics we are protecting; it's families. When members of the Wanneroo Joondalup SES coordinate through their radios, network reliability can determine whether homes stand or fall. It honours those who serve and the communities they protect. The right to access emergency services is fundamental. It gives real meaning to the right of life and health recognised under international law.

This bill ensures those rights are protected in practice, not just in principle. It ensures the infrastructure of our compassion, the ability to call for help, is fit for purpose. In Moore, we've seen how communication saved lives. When wild storms hit the suburbs from Kingsley to Ocean Reef, emergency calls and SES coordination made the difference between safety and disaster. Along our northern beaches, Whitfords Volunteer Sea Rescue and our lifesaving volunteers depend on those same links when lives are at risk offshore. This bill makes that connection stronger. It ensures that, even if one network fails, coordination does not. It ensures that information flows lawfully and rapidly between providers and oversight remains continuous, not only after the fact.

Some may ask whether these new powers will be used responsibly. The answer is yes. The bill includes strict limits on the custodian's power. ACMA oversight remains intact, and commercial confidentiality and privacy are protected under existing laws. This is targeted reform—precise, not heavy-handed. It is about coordination, not control. It has been developed through extensive consultation with industry, emergency services and state governments. That collaboration is a credit to Minister Wells and her department. They listened, learned and acted swiftly, turning the lessons of the Optus outage into lasting reforms.

Contrast that with the opposition's record. For nearly a decade, they oversaw a system where there were repeated warnings about fragile emergency communications, yet they delivered no structural reform to fix it. They presided over a system that relied on goodwill instead of good governance. When outages occurred, they ordered inquiries but never delivered legislative change. This government has done what they would not: create accountability, not just commentary. That is the difference between managing headlines and managing risk.

The people of Moore expect action, not excuses. They expect a government that invests in reliability and transparency. They know that, when a crisis hits, the only thing that matters is whether the call connects. This bill will ensure it will. In Joondalup and Currambine, families are connected through schools, workplaces and community sport. They need to know emergency services can find them fast. In Duncraig and Carine, where many residents are older Australians, uninterrupted access to triple zero is peace of mind. In Kingsley and Padbury, tradespeople on the road depend on mobile coverage to report accidents. Along the coast, in Sorrento, Marmion and Watermans Bay, surf lifesaving clubs coordinate with ambulances and police each summer. This bill supports all of them. It's as practical as a working phone line and as vital as a heartbeat.

This bill also sits within the broader agenda of national resilience. This government is investing in secure, modern infrastructure across energy, transport and communications. We are strengthening cybersecurity and emergency management capability and ensuring our laws reflect the interconnected world Australians now live in. The Triple Zero Custodian bill is part of that architecture—a quiet reform that will save lives precisely because most people will never notice it working. Reliability should be invisible. It should be expected. When systems fail, people notice. When they function flawlessly, society moves forward in safety.

I want to acknowledge extraordinary people who make the system work every day: the triple 0 operators, who stay calm under pressure; the dispatchers, who coordinate across multiple agencies in seconds; the first responders—police, firefighters, ambulance officers and Marine Rescue—who act on those calls; and the volunteers who drop everything to help strangers because that is what community means. They are the human face of this legislation. They deserve the certainty that, when someone needs them, the line will open, not fail. This bill honours their service.

At its heart, this bill affirms something deeply Australian—that in moments of crisis, we look after each other. That ethos underpins our emergency services, our social contract and democracy itself. Technology must serve that ethos, not undermine it. When we make our systems more reliable, we make our society more humane. That is the moral thread running through this legislation. As technology evolves—satellite networks, 5G, emergency apps—the custodian will ensure triple 0 evolves too. They will plan for continuity, redundancy and accessibility for people with disability or language barriers. That forward planning will prevent the next crisis rather than just reacting to it. It's what good governance looks like.

Emergency services are delivered locally but depend on national coordination. This bill reinforces that cooperation through structured communication and shared protocols. It builds unity of purpose between agencies that already work side-by-side under immense pressure. That is how we strengthen the federation in practice—through practical reform not rhetoric.

First responders in Moore don't ask for fanfare. They ask for systems that work, reliable networks, clear information and leadership that understands what is at stake. This bill delivers exactly that. It strengthens the communications backbone they depend on so they can focus on protecting lives and property. It says to every police officer, paramedic, firefighter and volunteer, 'We've got your back.' It says to every Australian, 'You will never be left without help because of a preventable communications failure.' That is government at its best.

Let me close with gratitude. To the minister, Anika Wells, thank you for your stewardship and determination. To the officials and experts who shaped this legislation, thank you for your diligence. To the first responders and volunteers in Moore, from Joondalup health campus to the firefighters at Joondalup and Duncraig fire stations, St John WA and the Marine Rescue crews, thank you for the lives you save. This bill is for you. It's for every Australian who dials triple 0 in fear and finds hope on the line. It's for every community that relies on the simple promise that help is always there.

This parliament has a duty to strengthen the systems that protect life. We cannot predict every emergency, but we can prepare for them. We cannot prevent every failure, but we can ensure that when failure comes the response is swift and coordinated. That is exactly what this bill achieves. It modernises our telecommunications safety net, provides clarity where confusion once reigned and turns the lessons of the past into safeguards for the future.

The strength of a society is measured not only in prosperity but in protection—how well it safeguards its people in their most vulnerable moments. This bill strengthens that protection and ensures that our emergency call service, a quiet miracle of modern governance, continues to serve every Australian every hour of every day. It ensures that when disaster strikes, the system holds. It ensures that trust in our institution is earned through performance, not assumption. And it reminds us that the work of government, at its best, is not loud; it's reliable. I commend this bill to the House.

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

It has sadly taken the tragic death of four Australians due to a second Optus triple 0 outage in September for this government to progress this legislation, the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Triple Zero Custodian and Emergency Calling Powers) Bill 2025, today. The Minister for Communications, Anika Wells, told the House yesterday that the Albanese government had implemented most of the Bean review recommendations. I ask the minister to inform the House on record when and by whom those recommendations were implemented. The minister told question time yesterday that the opposition was politicising this issue. When Australian lives are lost and when the Australian government has the regulatory responsibility and falls short of that responsibility, the opposition's job is to hold the government accountable.

Regrettably, under the Albanese Labor government, the mob on that side of the House are full of so much hubris. They don't believe in transparency and accountability; they're too busy enjoying the trappings of office. Such is this government's hubris that yesterday, in question time, the minister had a go at the opposition for not rubberstamping this bill—which they gave to the shadow minister less than 24 hours before. I mean, fancy the shadow minister wanting to consult with colleagues and take it to the party room! What happened to the kinder, friendlier, more transparent parliament? No; not when you've got such a cheer squad on the other side. Labor beats down on the opposition, puts democracy aside and just wants to have its own way. So let me tell you about the forgotten Australians—the collateral damage of this government's hubris.

Rural, regional and remote Australians live a long way from hospitals, police, firefighting and other emergency services, and, for many, a mobile phone is their sole phone service, particularly in remote Indigenous communities. One North Queensland resident explains they cannot make phone calls on their Telstra service—Telstra, not Optus—because it drops out for about 20 seconds every few seconds, even interrupting triple 0 calls. The intermittent signal came, believe it or not, after a system upgrade, but Telstra tells them they need more satellites in the air and maybe it will improve by 2030. That's encouraging! We tried to speak further with this lady from North Queensland this morning and, unsurprisingly, we could not get connection. That's the lived experience in regional Australia under the Albanese Labor government. This is a minister who justifies second-rate services for regional Australians.

A Mallee constituent contacted me and said that they have not been able to contact triple 0 on their Optus service. My office has since not been able to ring them back on their number because, strangely enough, it doesn't connect. Then there's Paula, who was playing golf in early August on the Mornington Peninsula when she experienced heart attack symptoms but could not reach triple 0 on her Optus-affiliate service. She got through to her daughter on Facebook Messenger, who then called the ambulance. Thankfully, Paula survived. At last check, Optus couldn't explain that outage. These are the lived experiences of regional Australians, whose communities have been hollowed out of health and other emergency services under Labor governments, both federal and state.

Regional Australians live a long way from an ambulance station, let alone a hospital and let alone a police station or firefighting services. These are regional Australians who take it upon themselves to look after themselves and to run, for instance, farm firefighting units because they know they are so far from help and they need to be self-reliant. They cannot contact triple 0 during an outage to report that a fire is moving in a certain direction or that they need help stopping an outbreak. How do motorists or Indigenous Australians report a car accident and the need for urgent assistance if triple 0 fails? This is why, as shadow minister for regional communications, I am proposing amendments to this bill to bring specific emphasis to rural, regional and remote Australians.

Enough is enough. Without specific emphasis and reporting on their needs, regional Australians will continue to lose their lives unnecessarily. Labor simply doesn't care about that. We have higher morbidity and mortality rates in regional Australia, and my observation as former shadow assistant minister for regional health is that Labor do not care one iota—nothing has changed in that space. Labor centralises health services. Labor undermines regional health services so that they have to be centralised. Labor guts regions of health professionals, through the DPA, that can save lives and turn regional health care around.

I therefore make no apology as the member for Mallee, proudly representing the Nationals, moving specific amendments and making a specific case for regional Australians. That's my job. That is our job—representing our electorates, our constituents. Let the government go ahead and gag and vote down amendments. It will simply reinforce yet again that the Albanese Labor government sees regional Australians as obstacles at best and invisible at worst.

This brings me to the Triple Zero Custodian. It was recommended by Richard Bean way back in March 2024, and the minister is moving legislation today. She couldn't tell the House yesterday what the custodian has been doing since it was created within the department, and this is where I come back to responsibility. First of all, nothing absolves the Albanese Labor government of its responsibility on triple 0 connectivity and on telecommunications more broadly. The minister in question time yesterday wanted to point the finger at Optus—it's all Optus's fault!—claiming we on this side of the House are letting Optus off the hook. Hardly!

What did former US president George W. Bush famously try to say? 'Fool me once—shame on you. Fool me twice—shame on me.' The Albanese Labor government are on their second time around on triple 0 outages. They had more than fair warning about Optus's shortcomings and, indeed, an independent report recommending the Triple Zero Custodian. Yet it took four tragedies and God knows how many more near misses for the government to come into this place implementing just one recommendation from the 18 in the Bean review.

The minister wants us to rubber-stamp this legislation this week, but is the Triple Zero Custodian the independent body the Bean review recommended? That's a very good question. Does it have sufficient independence from ministerial influence? Is there sufficient transparency and accountability for the Australian public to know what is going on? Does the custodian sits sufficiently outside the control of ACMA, the department and the minister? The recommendation said the custodian should have responsibility. However, we know that ultimately, in our Westminster system of government, responsibility sits squarely with the minister. Thus far, in the telecommunications portfolio, this minister has shown poor leadership in her responsibility.

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

I move:

That the question now be put.

A division having been called and the bells having been rung—

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before the doors are locked, I seek leave—everybody is supportive of this—to call the division off.

Leave granted; question agreed to.

Original question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.