Shadow communications minister Melissa McIntosh and shadow regional communications minister Anne Webster say the government has more explaining to do over the Optus triple-zero outages. Photo: Region.
For two days in a row this week, every single question from the Opposition during parliamentary Question Time has been directed to Communications Minister Anika Wells over the recent Optus triple-zero outages that have been linked to a number of deaths.
At the same time, Senate Estimates also focused on the issue, with Coalition and Greens senators grilling government officials over who knew what, when and why the crisis wasn’t averted.
On Wednesday (8 October), it emerged that Optus had sent two emails alerting the Communications Department on Thursday, 18 September, to the first outage, but had used an incorrect address.
The minister’s office and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), however, were also copied into the email – sparking questions as to why the minister said she wasn’t alerted until a day later.
Shadow communications minister Melissa McIntosh said Ms Wells had some explaining to do.
“The minister’s office received notification on the Thursday. The minister stood up in parliament yesterday [Tuesday] and told the Australian people she did not find out and her office did not find out until Friday,” Ms McIntosh said on Wednesday.
“The minister has misled the parliament, she has misled the Australian public, and it is clear and plain to see in this email, as revealed by Senate estimates.”
The department’s deputy secretary James Chisholm told estimates that Optus had emailed about the outages in two emails, but the incorrect address delayed the government being made aware of the issue.
There was also incorrect information, with the first email stating that a triple-zero outage had occurred and the second claiming it had been resolved, affecting only 10 calls.
The outage actually impacted 600 calls.
“We had not been told properly that there had been an outage,” Mr Chisholm said.
“We were not made aware of that until the next day.”
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young was outraged, asking: “How many calls need to fail before the minister thinks it’s an issue?”
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young also accused Mr Chisholm of being “incredibly misleading” in his opening statement earlier in the morning, when he said the department was notified on Thursday, but it didn’t actually know about it until Friday.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young asks how many triple-zero outages does it take for the minister to think it’s an issue. Photo: Region
On 18 September, emergency calls were blocked through Optus in South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and parts of NSW.
The deaths of two people in South Australia and one in WA have been linked to those outages, while a fourth death, of an infant in SA, is considered likely to have been unrelated.
A separate outage on 28 September blocked nine calls to triple-zero through one Optus tower in Dapto, NSW, in the Illawarra region.
Ms McIntosh told reporters it was ridiculous to suggest that the wrong email address about the first outage puts the blame solely on Optus for the government not acting sooner.
“It’s a failing in getting an email address wrong, but there are other emails in the chain,” she said.
“The minister’s office also received the emails, and ACMA was also the regulator receiving the emails. Do they not speak with each other?
“This is all under the purview of the minister. So how could everyone fail in this regard?”
Labor introduced a bill on Tuesday to create a triple-zero custodian.
It passed in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, with the government rejecting Coalition amendments to double the maximum penalties for triple-zero outages and to add the service to a critical infrastructure list.
The Opposition also proposed an inquiry into the latest outage, but the government denied that, too.
Ms Wells said the Opposition “pulled a parliamentary stunt” in the way the amendments were introduced and that the proposal was in fact “quite poor”.
Labor also blocked the Nationals’ attempt to ensure that rural, regional, and remote Australians received a specific focus from the legislated triple-zero custodian today.
Shadow Minister for Regional Communications Anne Webster said by voting against her amendments, Labor showed it didn’t care about regional Australians being impacted the most by telecommunications outages.
“I moved amendments this morning to the government’s bill to ensure regional Australians are not left hanging again by another Triple Zero outage,” Dr Webster said.
“Sadly, the government was not interested in a specific focus on abysmal regional connectivity and, yet again, told parliament it’s their way or the highway.”
The minister insists there was nothing new in Wednesday’s revelations and says the fault for the outages lies squarely with Optus.
“All of this information is already in the public domain,” Ms Wells said.
“I spoke to that at a press conference on 22 September. I spoke about that incorrect information that Optus provided to my office and to the ACMA regulator on Thursday, 18 September … That advice that Optus gave to both my office and ACMA on Thursday afternoon was clearly incorrect. It was inaccurate and it was misleading.”
