News and politics live updates: Anika Wells says Telstra must ‘face the music’ after nationwide outage

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has paid tribue to Derryn Hinch following his death at age 82.

“Derryn Hinch lived a life rich in colour and free from fear,” the PM wrote of the veteran broadcaster and former senator on X.

“As an interviewer, investigator and presenter he was much more than ‘the Human Headline’ he had a sense of the deeper story and the courage to cover it, come what may.

“He held to those same instincts as a Senator and he fought illness with that same bravery. My sincere condolences to his family and his many friends.”

Anika Wells says it is a “huge relief” South Australian Police have ruled out a link between Telstra’s nationwide outage and the death of an elderly South Australian woman after confirming reports of a failed triple-0 call were incorrect.

Speaking after the police update, Ms Wells said she had previously been advised by the triple-0 custodian there had been no adverse outcomes from the outage, but the South Australian case had remained an exception while investigations continued.

Ms Wells also criticised the handling of the allegations, saying she was “staggered” it took police door-knocking a South Australian senator to obtain the information needed to investigate the claim.

“I am relieved that the outcome here is that there is no causative link between the outage and what is a tragic loss for the family,” she said, offering her condolences to the woman’s loved ones.

Anika Wells has refused to speculate on reports Telstra was warned about vulnerabilities in its network before this week’s nationwide outage, saying the government would wait for the findings of multiple investigations before drawing conclusions.

Ms Wells said upcoming reviews by the Australian Communications and Media Authority and the triple-0 custodian would examine what happened and whether the outage could have been prevented.

Ms Wells said Telstra would be required to provide a detailed report within 45 days outlining the cause of the outage and the steps it would take to prevent it from happening again.

She also urged the Coalition to back legislation that would give the government new powers to mandate minimum telecommunications standards, saying it had so far failed to support the reforms.

Asked about Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady’s public apology, Ms Wells said, “It was the right thing to do.”

Communications Minister Anika Wells says Telstra must now “face the music” after confirming the telco has formally advised the triple-0 custodian its nationwide outage has been resolved.

Speaking in Canberra on Friday, Ms Wells said all outstanding welfare checks referred to state emergency services had now been completed, with “no adverse outcomes” identified among those cases. She thanked emergency responders who assisted the seven people found to require help, saying their “quick and diligent work on this occasion may well have saved lives”.

Ms Wells said the focus would now shift to holding Telstra accountable for the outage, warning the company had “a lot of questions to answer” and would need to rebuild the trust of Australians.

“Telstra has held special trust from Australians... But that trust really stands in peril today,” she said.

“It is going to take Telstra a lot of time and a lot of work to rebuild that trust with Australians.”

Ms Wells said the government expected Telstra to cooperate “fully and transparently” with all investigations and vowed it would “not take a backward step” when it came to holding telecommunications companies to account.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says key supplies of PAC-3 Patriot interceptors would arrive from the US in the next few days.

Mr Zelenskiy said the two countries had reached a political agreement on licenses for the production of the missiles.

The Patriot is a US-made air defence system. Its PAC-3 interceptor - short for Patriot Advanced Capability-3 - is one of the few Western weapons capable of shooting down the ballistic missiles Russia has increasingly fired at Ukrainian cities.

Mr Zelenskiy, speaking to reporters after returning from a NATO summit and talks with US President Donald Trump in Turkey, also said that talks were proceeding with America on a “drone deal” or joint drone production.

Reuters

An Australian Royal Commission has torn into Elon Musk’s X platform for not engaging with the high profile probe into anti-Semitism and social cohesion after the country’s worst terror attack.

Counsel Assisting Richard Lancaster was scathing in his remarks to the Commission on Friday when he detailed the platform’s “failure” to assist the inquiry and questioned whether it should be banned in Australia.

It comes after Australia’s internet regulator used her testimony to reveal that X fought against an order to remove harrowing Bondi massacre content from the December 14 attack.

eSafetyboss Julie Inman Grant said the platform had told eSafety the footage showing murder victims at a Hanukkah celebration was “no worse than a gore movie”.

“X Corp’s conduct, both within this commission and outside of it, begs the question whether XCorp has or ought to have a social license to operate in Australia,” Mr Lancaster said.

The Australian sharemarket gained 0.6 per cent after midday on Friday.

The ASX 200 rose 48.6 points to 8811.10 just after noon.

Shares in NextDC rose almost 1 per cent to $13.96 after the company announced it was further bolstering its debt facilities as it continues to expand.

The data centre company secured new senior debt facilities of about $2.3 billion, which is up $500 million on the $1.8b of commitments announced in May.

“The upsize reflects continued strong support from a broad syndicate of domestic and international banks, following the company’s recent record increase in contracted utilisation,” NEXTDC said.

​Read the full story here.​

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced Australia will bring the Big Bash League to India for the first time, with this summer’s season opener between the Melbourne Renegades and the Perth Scorches to be played in Chennai in December.

“It will kick off a week-long G’day Namaste festival of Australian sport, culture, and business engagement,” Mr Albanese said, standing next to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

On Thursday, the two leaders signed a series of agreements, including to export more Australian uranium to India.

Telstra big boss has stopped short of confirming whether customers affected by this week’s nationwide outage will receive compensation, saying the company’s immediate focus was restoring services and rebuilding trust.

Pressed repeatedly on whether customers would be reimbursed, Ms Brady instead apologised for the disruption and acknowledged Telstra had “a job to do” to regain public confidence after the outage impacted mobile services and more than 600 failed triple-0 call attempts.

Ms Brady said any failure to connect a triple-0 call was “unacceptable”, but was forced to defend the company’s emergency response, saying backup systems and welfare checks operated as intended.

“We know we’ve got a job to do to make sure we rebuild that trust with our customers, and that comes through our actions and through delivering for them,” she said.

Telstra also maintained the outage was caused by an unexpected software defect and said further details, including any lessons from the incident, would be released once its investigation is complete.

Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady has responded to reports the company was warned about vulnerabilities in its network timing systems before this week’s nationwide outage, saying the telco regularly works with researchers, universities and industry experts to strengthen its network but the issue would form part of the company’s investigation.

“These timing synchronisation systems are well-known to be critical to a mobile network,” Ms Brady said, adding Telstra had engaged with the academic referenced in reports “on a wide range of things”.

Ms Brady also rejected suggestions that recent job cuts contributed to the outage, saying there was “no indication” Telstra’s restructuring had played a role.

Asked whether executives would forfeit bonuses over the incident, she declined to comment, saying remuneration decisions would be handled through the company’s governance processes and overseen by the board once the investigation into the outage was complete.