Wells said responsibility for ensuring Triple Zero calls connect during outages rested with carriers.
“The law in Australia is clear: if an outage occurs, telcos must make sure that Triple Zero calls still connect by being redirected to alternate mobile towers,” she said.
The move comes as pressure mounts on the government ahead of bushfire season. Wells has summoned the heads of Telstra, Optus and TPG to Canberra on Tuesday to explain their preparations for summer and their compliance with the November 1 rules.
Opposition communications spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh has called for an independent inquiry into the entire Triple Zero ecosystem, saying ACMA “cannot be the investigators” as it was “part of the failed process”.
The Coalition is expected this week to target Wells, who became communications minister after the election, over her handling of the Optus outage when federal parliament resumes on Tuesday. Last week Wells described herself as a “new minister” when asked whether she was listening more to telecommunications companies or to regulators about the deepening Triple Zero crisis.
Opposition communications spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh.Credit: Janie Barrett
“I am still a new minister to the industry, so I would say I’m listening to everybody at the moment, and I would say we are fast-tracking our Triple Zero guardian legislation that will give confidence to Australians about the specific role that Triple Zero plays for us in our country with disaster season ahead, and I’ll be doing that as quickly as I can,” Wells told reporters last week.
Wells, the aged care minister in the first term of the Albanese government, was appointed communications minister on May 12.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has also criticised Wells for travelling to New York following the Optus outage, and said she should have remained in Australia.
Industry experts have said the system faces mounting pressures. According to Telstra internal data, calls to Triple Zero surged by 44 per cent over the past decade, from 8.1 million in 2014 to 11.7 million in 2024. The National Emergency Communications Working Group’s June white paper said that “without urgent reform, the system risks becoming obsolete”.
The legislation represents one of the final pieces of business for parliament this year. Just four sitting weeks remain before the summer break.
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