2CC with Stephen Cenatiempo - 30 January 2026

Melissa McIntosh MP 
Shadow Minister for Communications 
Shadow Minister for Women 
Federal Member for Lindsay 

30 January 2026 

Transcript 

2CC Interview with Stephen Cenatiempo

Topics: iPhone Triple Zero; Satellite Technology; Nuisance calls.

E&EO … 

 

Stephen Cenatiempo

My criticism of the former Coalition MPs over the last week or so is that they've been talking about themselves rather than talking about us. But one of the exceptions to that rule has been the Shadow Communications Minister, Melissa McIntosh, who's been talking about the latest failures in the Triple Zero emergency call system. This time, Apple phones are at the centre of that. Melissa joins us on the line. Melissa, good morning. 

 

Melissa McIntosh

Good morning. 

 

Stephen Cenatiempo

This is an issue that just doesn't seem to go away. I mean, it's almost every week another problem pops up. 

 

Melissa McIntosh

Yeah, it's a big issue and I really hope that the government's not getting desensitised to this issue because the Minister herself certainly isn't doing much about it. Once again, I felt like I was giving the public safety announcement when I heard the other day from Telstra direct about the iPhone. That's just not good enough. Wherever you are in this country, and we've discussed this multiple times now, you should be able to make a call to Triple Zero in your greatest time of need. And I think Australians are now feeling like they're let down by telcos, by the government on this issue and they have lost confidence in the Triple Zero network, which is what I've been warning about since the Optus outage many months ago. So, something really does need to be done, an overhaul of the whole ecosystem. 

 

Stephen Cenatiempo

Well, that's the point here, because most of the commentary is about trying to find out who's to blame rather than talking about what the solution is and whilst Optus clearly need to take responsibility for their outage, and Apple needs to take responsibility for not upgrading, granted they are phones from 2017 - the 8, 8 Plus and X - but we've had Oppo phones as well. But clearly there's a problem with the system in and of itself that it is susceptible to all these different things. Now, clearly the fact that we've moved away from copper wires to a full cellular system these days is part of the problem but surely, we can get the technology right? 

 

Melissa McIntosh

Well, that's the thing. So, technology is moving at such a pace and that's why we also need to be having a look at the rules and regulations to make sure that what may have applied even 10 years ago still applies today. And we're not even talking about low orbiting satellites which are next to come on and how that might transform telecommunications, but the risks involved in that as well because right now every option is not an Australian option, it's an international option, and that poses risk to our sovereignty and you've got foreign owned satellites in our sky. So, this is a bigger issue than just the day-by-day outages that we are experiencing, which are just not on. So, let's have that independent investigation like I've called for, look at the regulations, look at the legislation in Parliament and see if this is really what is applicable to today’s day and age. I'm really concerned about the number of outages and it's just continuing. 

 

Stephen Cenatiempo

What do you think the answer is here? Because I spoke to our tech expert earlier this morning and talked about the fact that these low earth orbit satellites will eventually, not necessarily replace the cellular network, but certainly augment it so that there's greater coverage across the country. Do we need to accelerate that? Because we have a fairly extensive satellite program here in Australia and particularly here in Canberra that are behind building a lot of these satellites. So, we obviously have the opportunity to be a driver of this. 

 

Melissa McIntosh

We do have the opportunity, and I would love to see that because I think it's really important for us to have Australian owned satellites. But we've only really got Starlink at the moment and an Amazon option as well and we're really behind the game and we should be in front of it here, and there are risks involved. There’s delays in production of these satellites. They are pretty expensive and again, they use what's called spectrum. So, if there's a lot of satellites in the sky, that means that there has to be some give there. That's where it gets complicated. So, it is very focused on technology.  I think the government does need to look to what's going on, where the gaps are, have this investigation, make sure that the Triple Zero network is secure because it's not going to get better. If they don't, it's only going to get worse. 

 

Stephen Cenatiempo

So, this Triple Zero Custodian that we're talking about, what sort of difference is that going to make if it ever operates properly? 

 

Melissa McIntosh

Right now I feel like that's a farce. It's been a cover for the Minister to say that the government is on top of this. The custodian, we found out through Senate inquiries, had been in place for longer than we thought. And then we questioned, well, if the custodian was in place, which is actually a departmental official in the Department of Communications, they're not the big grand overseer of everything. Well, if they've been in place for this long, what were they doing during the Triple Zero outage with Optus? What have they been doing with the outages that have happened since then? What are they doing about these technology risks with the handsets? We're not hearing much about it, but this is what the Minister is saying is going to fix the issue, and it is not fixing the issue. 

 

Stephen Cenatiempo

Now, one other issue, and this isn't necessarily the Government's fault, this is something we all need to take a long, hard look at ourselves with, is these nuisance calls. Now so far, it's been Victoria that seems to be at the brunt of this, but I imagine it's happening everywhere else as well. And, you know, it makes for funny reading until you realise how urgent it is that our Triple Zero operators aren't caught up with this stuff. People ringing to order pizzas or complain that their air conditioner's not working or whinge about how hot the weather is, et cetera. Clearly, we as Australians are not taking this seriously either. 

Melissa McIntosh

Of course, people have to have personal responsibility as well and I think there's concern that there's nuisance calls, but also people calling Triple Zero just to test if their phone is working or their network is working accurately and that's because they're losing confidence. So, I have more concern around the lack of confidence in our Triple Zero network and in addition to that, older people just not getting with this iPhone thing. You had to do all these steps and the Minister, the day after I said there was an issue, she put out a little how to fix the iPhone issue, and you think about your listeners, many of them wouldn't know how to do that. It's quite complicated, especially for older people. I'm concerned about that, and they're the ones that need Triple Zero more frequently than other people. So, it is time, we need to take these issues seriously and the only way we can do it from a government perspective is to have that independent investigation. 

 

Stephen Cenatiempo

Well, another opportunity, the week after next is Senate Estimates, to prosecute a lot of these things. Is the Liberal Party and possibly even the National Party going to get their house in order before then? Because, as I said, apart from yourself and very few other exceptions, all we're hearing about is who's going to be the leader, who's going to challenge who and all of the internal ructions that none of us really care about. I know. 

 

Melissa McIntosh

And it's hard to get cut through right now. I did a speech in Parliament last week on immigration and the pressures it's placing on communities like mine, on our services, but also how much it's concerning people from a public safety perspective. And every time we talk about this, nobody seems to be really listening and it's because we are talking about ourselves too much. I'm also really concerned about issues like food security. So, if inflation is going up and food prices are going up, people are lined up at food banks, I imagine, right across the country. I'm seeing it in Penrith, in Western Sydney, so it's happening everywhere. 

 

Stephen Cenatiempo

Well, we're seeing it here in Canberra and we should be one of the richest cities in the country. 

 

 

Melissa McIntosh

Yeah, that's real-life stuff, isn't it? So, what's happening with that? If we have another rate increase, it's only going to get harder for people and so we should be holding the government to account. I truly hope that we get back to the business of opposition and be a strong opposition. 

 

Stephen Cenatiempo

So, do you need a leadership change, then, just to at least as a circuit breaker? Because look, I've been very critical of Sussan Ley as leader and I understand that you're not going to back me up on that, but just from the perspective of something changing so that you can get back into opposition mode, does it need to change? Does she need to go? 

 

Melissa McIntosh

No, I think we just need to get on with our jobs. That would be a good first step and thank you for acknowledging I've been trying to do that. That's what our people have elected us to do. We've got to remember that, first and foremost, we have been elected by our communities to represent them. That's number one, and then if you get the honour of getting a portfolio, you've got to do that job too, because you're meant to be representing all of Australia in that particular portfolio area. So, I think it is pretty much as simple as putting our heads down and doing the job, and I've got no desire to be having a spill or challenging leadership in the next couple of weeks. There's too much going on. It's too important to Australian people that we just do our jobs well. 

 

Stephen Cenatiempo

I always say when Parliament resumes that the circus is back in town, but I think the clowns have come in early. Melissa, I really appreciate your time this morning. 

 

Melissa McIntosh

I'm not there yet, so I won't take offence. 

 

Stephen Cenatiempo

Good on you. 

 

Melissa McIntosh

Thank you. 

 

Stephen Cenatiempo

Melissa McIntosh, the Shadow Communications Minister.

 

ENDS