Government sources confirmed that Wells had not spoken with the families, but they had been contacted by emergency services. The identities of these families are not public.
The chief executives of Australia’s three largest telcos struck a conciliatory tone following their meeting with Wells on Tuesday morning, issuing a joint statement describing the discussion as “constructive and important”.
“Australians need to be able to trust that calls to Triple Zero will work when it matters most, and we take that responsibility seriously,” Telstra’s Vicki Brady, TPG’s Iñaki Berroeta and Optus’ Stephen Rue said.
The trio acknowledged that “no network is infallible and outages can occur” but committed to “minimising the risk of disruption and responding swiftly when issues arise”.
Caught at the Senate’s turnstiles on his way out of parliament, beleaguered Optus CEO Stephen Rue would not discuss details of the meeting with journalists, but acknowledged that “resilience is very important, emergency services very important” and said it had been an excellent meeting.
The legislation will embed the custodian within the Australian Communications and Media Authority with statutory powers to demand information from telecommunications providers, monitor performance and compel carriers to prevent repeated outages.
“Repeated failures by Optus in recent years, through which thousands of emergency calls failed to connect and lives were lost, has compromised that trust,” Wells told parliament.
Under amendments proposed by the government, ACMA will be able to compel carriers to share information about outages, including technical details. Within six months of the laws commencing, the custodian will issue additional performance requirements to telcos.
The legislation works alongside new rules beginning November 1, including real-time reporting of outages to ACMA and emergency services, mandatory testing of Triple Zero during network upgrades and ystems to dispatch calls to alternative networks.
Loading
At least three deaths were linked to September’s Optus outage, when at least 600 Triple Zero calls failed across Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Eleven days later, almost 5,000 Optus customers in NSW’s Illawarra couldn’t contact emergency services for more than nine hours.
Opposition communications spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh wants an independent inquiry into the Triple Zero ecosystem, arguing ACMA “cannot be the investigators” as it was “part of the failed process”.
According to Telstra internal data, calls to Triple Zero surged 44 per cent over the past decade. The National Emergency Communications Working Group warned in June that “without urgent reform, the system risks becoming obsolete.”
The legislation represents one of the final pieces of business for parliament this year, with just four sitting weeks remaining before summer.
