‘Must never happen again’: Government gives Optus final warning on Triple-0 crisis

Communications Minister Anika Wells has warned Optus bosses the emergency call outages that plagued the network in September must never happen again, as the Government pushes for an independent inquiry into the failings linked to three deaths in West and South Australia.

Ms Wells joined Yuen Kuan Moon, the Singapore-based group executive of Optus-owner Singtel, at a meeting on Tuesday to seek reassurance the telco will restore confidence in Australians that it can connect triple-O calls as the nation approaches bushfire season.

“I have requested Optus employs external advisors to independently assess the company’s network plans to provide confidence to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) and the Australian Government that these problems will not reoccur,” Minister Wells said.

“Optus and all telecommunications providers have legal obligations under Australian law to make sure calls to emergency services go through. As the parent company of Optus, Singtel is also accountable.”

Optus resolves to improve

The controversy around the deadly September 18 outages ballooned after Optus admitted it also experienced outages in Dapto, New South Wales, on September 29 as part of a years-long pattern of problems in connecting calls to emergency services.

The telco’s under-pressure chief executive Stephen Rue has dismissed calls from across Canberra to consider resigning as a result of the outages, while Mr Moon told the media on Tuesday that the company needs time to investigate and complete remediation.

The group executive of Singtel also stuck to Optus’ position that the deadly September 18 outages were a result of errors made by staff, who failed to follow unspecified procedures related to the first part of a three-stage upgrade of a network security system known as a firewall.

“It is really due to a step that was missed by someone at Optus,” Mr Moon told reporters. “A process issues, a people issue. They didn’t follow the proper steps that resulted in the outage. We are still investigating that.”

Optus chairman John Arthur also defended the telco’s investment in network security and quality at Tuesday’s meeting alongside Mr Moon and Mr Rue.

“It’s not a question of investment,” Mr Arthur said of the network outages. “In due course, we will be speaking about the Singtel investment in Australia, which goes beyond Optus.”

Political pressure

However, the government has also directed the telco regulator ACMA to investigate Optus, with a mandate to provide confidence that the outages will not reoccur.

“We have made clear that Optus is accountable for what happened, and Optus needs to take full responsibility for its obligations to the community,” said Ms Wells. “Optus and all telecommunications providers have legal obligations under Australian law to make sure calls to emergency services go through. As the parent company of Optus, Singtel is also accountable. “

The political storm around the telco’s failures also grew on Tuesday, as a spokesperson for Opposition leader Sussan Ley attacked Minister Wells for flying to a New York United Nations conference last week as the Optus problems snowballed.

“Families do not want excuses. They want action,” said Ms Ley’s spokesperson. “Instead, Australians are left with a Minister who ducks responsibility, points fingers, and treats a life-and-death emergency service failure like a paperwork glitch. This is a government that just does not get it, and Australians are paying the price.”

Shadow Communications Minister Melissa McIntosh has previously labelled the outages as “an absolute disgraceful failure by Optus on every single account” and joined the calls for Optus’ board to consider the future of its CEO.

In 2023, Optus was fined $12 million for a separate outage that stopped Australians from connecting to emergency services. Mr Rue took over as the company’s chief executive in 2024 from Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, who resigned after the nationwide outage. The telco has more than 10 million customers across its mobile and internet services businesses.