‘Asleep’: Triple-0 custodian staff grilled on 24/7 claim during Senate estimates

The government’s triple-0 custodian handling overnight calls could be asleep when an emergency occurs, with staff kept on unpaid, on-call rostering for that aspect of the role, department officials have revealed.

The triple-0 custodian service was fast-tracked in the wake of the disastrous Optus outage, which resulted in multiple deaths after customers were unable to contact emergency services.

Liberal senator Sarah Henderson grilled communications officials during a Senate estimates hearing to determine who in the 30-person team was responsible for taking overnight calls.

“Is someone awake overnight to take the phone call?” she asked.

“They’re not awake overnight. They’re available with a phone to be able to take the phone call if needed,” a communications department official said.

“But what if they’re sleeping?” Senator Henderson said.

“Their phone will ring and they’ll take the call,” the official said.

However, deputy secretary James Chisholm clarified the communications department was not the first point of contact for an emergency response.

“We are not the front line emergency response body,” he said.

“The emergency call person, which is, as you know, run by Telstra and emergency services, are the most important first point of contact that networks should provide information to.

“There are a range of other organisations that networks are required to notify, that includes the National Emergency Management Agency, ourselves, ACMA.

“But the most important thing is that networks, when they are notifying of a problem, they are contacting the people who will help save lives immediately.”

ACMA’s cut-price deal for Optus blasted

Earlier, The communications watchdog came under fire as department officials were grilled on whether Optus will have its licence renewed at a cheaper rate, despite a disastrous triple-0 outage earlier this year.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has proposed to renew almost 70 expiring spectrum licences for between $5 billion and $6.2 billion.

The spectrum refers to the range of radio frequencies managed by ACMA, on which mobile networks operate.

Speaking during a Senate Estimates hearing, Sarah Hanson-Young described the potential, discounted renewal of the telco’s licence by ACMA as “the elephant in the room”.

“A company that has behaved so badly, that has failed so badly, should not be rewarded for that behaviour with a cheaper price to accessing that spectrum,” Senator Hanson-Young said.

“And I think most Australians would agree.

“I haven’t heard the government say that they’re too big to fail.

“But if that’s the argument, then the government better start telling people that, because I think you’ll get some resistance.”

Department officials denied making that claim, instead saying the potential consequences for Optus in relation to the triple-0 laws was a “big focus”.

“But with spectrum, you’ve also got consequences for consumers, including Optus customers, and so the outcome of the spectrum process has implications for competition, for customers, for regional communities,” a department official said.

“Optus, for example, has an arrangement with TPG that enables broader access for regional communities.

“So whatever decision ACMA makes on spectrum has follow on implications for … competition for customers, for connectivity.”

$10m social media ban campaign

Labor’s media blitz for its upcoming social media laws will be executed at the hefty price-tag of $10m, department officials have revealed.

With the world-first ban set to take effect in just over a week, the department will spend the multimillion-dollar figure from October 19 to December 20 2025.

$6.4m has been allocated for media spend, with the remaining $3.4m spread across “research elements, the creative elements,” a department official told the estimates committee.

“We also have public relations as part of this campaign,” they said.

“We have also engaged a First Nations consultant and a core consultant to assist with the development of the campaign.”

The campaign elements, spread across channels like radio, digital video and audio, television, print and social media, direct people to the information related to the social media minimum age on the eSafety website.

“The eSafety website provides a whole raft of content, including support and resources for parents, individuals, educators,” a communications official said.

“We’re working quite closely with them to continue to promote and amplify the messaging, to assist in developing content as well to support the audience.”