Joint press conference transcript with Webster and Violi - 28 October 2025

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

Dr Anne Webster MP
Shadow Minister for Regional Communications
Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories
Federal Member for Mallee

Aaron Violi MP
Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications
Chief Opposition Whip
Federal Member for Casey

28 October 2025

Transcript

Joint press conference – Parliament House, ACT

Topics: Triple Zero Custodian Bill; Triple Zero register; Triple Zero penalties; Triple Zero Custodian; 3G network shutdown; social media age minimum.

E&OE …

Melissa McIntosh

We’re here today because the Albanese Labor Government has done a stitch-up in the Senate with the Greens against the people of Australia. Six weeks ago, people died because of a Triple Zero outage that occurred on this Government’s watch. And we have been pushing hard for the processes of Parliament with amendments calling for the Government to take action and today the Government has sided with the Greens and let Australians down.

I called from the very beginning for a public register of Triple Zero outages – public, real-time reporting controlled by the Government for the Australian people because that’s what they need. The Minister finally relented but she hasn’t done it in the interests of everyday Australians

The letter that she wrote to ACMA this week - we tried through the Senate processes to get access to that letter. The Government has declined to release it. But it seems to be that the telcos, each telco, three of them, will have the responsibility to publish outages on their websites. What does that even mean? How are Australians going to get access to this information? Why can't the government agree to a public register? We've just pushed legislation through to have a custodian that is meant to oversee all this. What's that Custodian going to be doing? Why can't this register be underneath the Custodian?

The Greens were saying that they initially were saying they wanted $100 million for fines. We said we would work with the Greens and we would have fines up to $40 million from $10 million today. But they've also done a deal with the government and ow we have $30 million fines.

We were coming to the table to ensure that we could have these other measures in place. A deal with the Greens would have meant we would have had a public register. But they've said no to that. Why are the Greens saying no in siding with the government on this?

And as you know, been pushing hard for those reportages to be made public. Every six months, the government wants the telcos to provide these reports. We're saying that's not good enough. Let's have it every three months and let's make them public. But it seems to be that the Senate has now just said no to that as well. The Government and the Greens are saying no to public reports being tabled. So, the public will have no oversight of what's been going on. There will be no public register of outages.

This is about lives. People died. This is why it's so important. While I'm standing here today with Anne Webster and Aaron Violi, my colleagues in the Shadow Communications space, because it affects every Australian - Australians in every suburb and of course in the regions. So, we'll keep holding the government to account. But on behalf of Australians, we are so disappointed that the Government has let people down time and time again from the very moment the Minister left this country to go overseas during this crisis.

And I'll ask Anne and Aaron say for words.

Anne Webster

What we have here is a rolling set of failures by this government. It is exactly 12 months today that the 3G shutdown occurred across Australia. From that time, there is community after community who are telling us that they cannot access their phones. I can tell you if you have no access and connectivity on your phone, you certainly cannot call Triple Zero.

So, the Triple Zero emergency service that Australians expect to be able to access is even less available. And there is no transparency from this Government about why there is no evidence for where the shutdown has failed. We were promised by the Telcos that when 3G shut down, there would be 4G and 5G greater access for all Australians. And particularly out in the bush.

While the facts remain, the anecdotal evidence is that that is not true. The Government has put in place an audit about the 3G shutdown, and we will not know the result of that audit until 2027. My question to this Government and to this Minister is how many more people are going to die because they cannot access Triple Zero?

In fact, they can't even call their family members. The farmers out on farms cannot access their families if they have an accident. Farmers out on their farms cannot access the markets that they rely on. This is an ongoing, and will be an ongoing, rolling disaster for Australians and it is frankly not good enough.

And the Labor Government has failed to act and failed to see that this is serious and that people in the regions are in particular should not have to put up with this poor service. Or zero service, as the case may be.

Aaron Violi

Thanks, Melissa. Thanks, Anne.

It is clear that, you see the Minister for Communications is not up to the job. We've seen her failures when it comes to Triple Zero and we've seen the failures, as Anne said, when it comes to the 3G network and the impacts in our communities.

And this is now time urgent. We are now heading into summer, a time of disasters and emergencies in my community of Casey and all across the country. And our communities deserve to know that if they pick up the phone to call Triple Zero, it will be answered, and they will get the support that they need.

But we can have no confidence in this Minister. And this is time urgent. And it is time for the Prime Minister to step in and take over, because it is clear the Minister for Communications is not up to now. The Prime Minister was happy to roll the Treasurer when it came to the superannuation changes, and he needs to lead and step in and take over from this Minister because Australian lives are on the line.

This is time urgent as we enter the disaster season for Australians and hopefully the Prime Minister can step in when he gets back from his next trip, because we know this Minister for Communications is not up to it and it's the Australian people that will pay the price.

McIntosh

Any questions?

Journalist

Ms McIntosh, just on the Triple Zero inquiry, that's yet to be - the outage that's yet to be established. I understand that in the Senate it's been co-sponsored by the Greens. Does it have the numbers to get through this afternoon?

McIntosh

We hope so. From the very beginning I've been calling again for an independent inquiry. First and foremost I don't think it should be the ACMA doing the investigation into this. ACMA's part of the failed process. So I suspended standing orders last time we were in Parliament to call for a House inquiry. The Government didn't like that. They voted against inquiry in the House and we've been working since then with the Greens to get a Senate inquiry up.

We would like everything investigated. If there's not going to be an independent investigation by the Government, let's make sure that every single Australian that has struggled with calling Triple Zero can come here to the people's House and have their voices heard. I want contracts to be looked at. I question how a telco can be getting government contracts at the same time as potentially getting huge amounts of fines.

And I do want to look at - we were the ones that came forward and said but let's increase those fines for telcos. I want that looked into. Are we fining these telcos enough? And as we know the Greens relented and did a stitch up deal with the Government and there's less transparency in all of this.

So yes. I hope, I truly hope we get that Senate inquiry up today when it goes to a vote.

Journalist

On that inquiry, which witnesses do you want to call first and do you have an idea of the timeline of the Senate inquiry?

McIntosh

The biggest disaster that we've experienced of late is the Optus Triple Zero outage. And I hope that Optus will front that inquiry very early on. I know that they've got their own investigations going on in house but that shouldn't stop them fronting up to the Senate. And then let the people have their say that have had these outages in our regions right across the country.

But we know it's not just about Optus. There's been reports around those Samsung handset devices that are just not going to be functional anymore. Why have we waited this long to find out that that is potentially a huge issue? Sixty-odd-thousand people impacted when their handsets no longer work, and they can't connect to a network.

There are so many questions. That's why it needs to be a thorough investigation into the whole Triple Zero ecosystem.

Journalist

Another matter in your portfolio - the social media giants were up at an inquiry this morning. There were some accusations made by your colleague Ross Cadell about some pretty brazen harassment of his staff from TikTok. Can you reflect on that? Do you think that these social media companies are acting without penalty? Are you confident that the incoming social media laws will make sure that they do comply?

McIntosh

I have a lot of issues with the outcome of the ban and whether it's going to do what it is intended to do in protecting Australian children. Tenth of December - it's only a couple of weeks out, we still don't know which platforms are in and out. There seems to be a whole lot of angst going on in the community as well and whether the advertising campaign that the Government's put forward is easy going to work. Families don't really know it's coming, schools don't know, kids don't know. In regards to your questions around the Senator, any accusations of bullying needs to be thoroughly investigated.

Journalist

Do you know of any other Coalition Senators or Senators in Parliament that were contacted by TikTok about their question?

McIntosh

No, I'm not aware.

Journalist

On the inquiry, have you reached out to the bosses of Optus and Samsung to front up?

McIntosh

Yeah, I've had a meeting with the CEO of Optus and I spoke to him about that inquiry and the expectations that they will make an appearance and I know that as I said they are undergoing their own investigation but it does need to be thorough across the whole ecosystem and there's questions around what actually happened. The CEO of Optus told me there were process issues and it was human error, but how could one person's mistake result in an outage where people have died and what's being done now to prevent that from ever happening again? As Aaron said we're approaching disaster season. I asked the CEO, is he confident that it wasn't going to happen during that time and couldn't give me a clear answer.

Journalist

What about Samsung?

McIntosh

Samsung - my office has had conversations but I'm not aware if they'll be appearing. I hope they - of course I hope they do. I hope every telco provider, every mobile phone provider that's involved in the Triple Zero network make an appearance.

Journalist

There were some strong comments that Aaron made about the Communications Minister and her ability to do the job. So, do you think that she's not up to the job and should she be stepping aside?  Are you going to ask?

McIntosh

Well, the Minister's only just said that we will have this public register now. I've been calling for this since pretty much the day this outage happened six weeks ago. She went overseas, came back, I put amendments through Parliament, the Government said no to, and then six weeks later she's saying okay we'll have this public register, but it won't be the government that is responsible let's put it back to the telcos and each one might have it on their website. And she wrote a letter to ACMA but is not telling anyone what was in that letter. So, again, we're left with more questions than answers and questions around how serious this Minister is taking this issue. These are Australian lives. There's nothing more important than protecting your citizens and this is life and death itself.

Journalist

On that criticism of her going overseas, I mean, at the UN she held that meeting with a bunch of other world leaders and we've now seen New Zealand seemingly going to put up some legislation for a similar social media ban. I mean, do you think there was some merit in spruiking this internationally?

McIntosh

She's cheerleading their success before it's even happened and while she was away, as good as an issue it is to protect Australian children, people died here in Australia and the issue was not resolved. The issue is not resolved six weeks on. So, I think her greatest priority should have been here in this country. The Prime Minister was overseas, he had other Ministers there that would have been up to the job, you would hope, to represent her on that world stage. She should have been here at home.

Journalist

On the Senate inquiry, you've talked about having Optus and other telcos come through. Do you think Singtel should have people represented at that inquiry? Should Singtel be answering questions as well?

McIntosh

Oh, absolutely. We want to know about their investment into Optus and what they're doing to ensure the strength of Optus and the processes that are in place. One of the questions I had was around call centres when it comes to Triple Zero, because we know that it took consumers, Australians, to call that call centre to let them know that there were Triple Zero outages and that call centre is offshore. Is that the best place to have a call centre dealing with Triple Zero issues in this country? So, yes, bring them all in. Bring them all in. Answer the questions and reassure the Australian public that the Triple Zero network is up to it.

Journalist

And when you say bring them all in, is that the CEO of Singtel?

McIntosh

Yeah, bring them in. Bring all the telcos in.

Journalist

And would that also include the two Australians on the Singtel board, Gail Kelly and John Arthur? And do you expect, or do you want to look at the issue of foreign ownership of Optus as it's managing a critical part of Australia's infrastructure?

McIntosh

It'll be up to the company who they select to be here, but I think when it comes to reassuring the Australian public that Optus is doing everything it can to secure the Triple Zero network, I think it should be putting its team up and that includes Singtel. When you're talking about people's lives, we're talking politics here, we're talking business, but this is our most critical telecommunications service that every single Australian, every single Australian relies on. So, take it seriously, show the Australian public that you are taking this seriously and that's what we're asking the Government as well, because they're not taking it seriously when it's six weeks on and they're saying no to our sensible amendments and they're doing stitch up deals with the Greens to try and hide away and have any transparency on the issue.

Journalist

So, will you be looking at foreign ownership of a company that's running the Triple Zero network?

McIntosh

That's going to be up to the Senate to decide which questions they ask. I want the whole spectrum, the whole Triple Zero ecosystem, to be questioned and to be tested, to be prodded and for people to have reassurance that every part of that process, every part of the business process, as I said, contracts, everything is investigated. Make sure this never happens again.

Journalist

Just zooming out a little bit. We're coming up to 30 years since the Telecommunications Act was written and obviously 30 years ago was a very different time for telecommunications. Do you think there just needs to be a broader rewrite, a much larger look at the Act and the way that we deal with telecommunications in this country?

McIntosh

I think and I might throw to Anne here a little bit on this because it does cross into some of the other work. I think this is one of the most highly regulated sectors in the country, but regulation doesn't seem to be doing its job. And we've just seen more regulation in having the Custodian, which is the Secretary of the Department overseeing ACMA, which is more regulation, and is that going to do the job as well? So I think it is time to have an investigation into that. We have satellites in the sky, you’re talking about foreign ownership, these are foreign owned satellites that are meant to do the job in providing better services to the region. So, Anne's doing some really good work on that.

Webster

David Littleproud and Sussan Ley have tasked me with developing the new Universal Service Obligation for Australia. We have new technology we have developed. You're totally right, we've developed a lot of technology over the last 30 years. All of that needs to be investigated. I think the fact that we will continue to ramp up technology and digital connectivity over time, including satellites, is important but we've got to put all the pieces together. At the moment, it's costing the mobile towers, for example, around $2 million per tower. It has a 7-kilometre radius and you think about how expensive that is to see regional Australia actually have connectivity, there's a problem and Australian taxpayers are paying for that along with the companies in some instances. But the companies are not that keen to put dollars into regional mobile towers, for obvious reasons, they're not going to get the money back. So, we have to have a broader look at the whole picture. That is what I'm doing, and a lot of that investigation obviously is going to take time. We're very keen to see a solution for all Australians. While the Prime Minister likes to frequently tell us that nobody should be left behind, he leaves regional Australians behind all the time, and on my watch, with regard to the Universal Service Obligation, that's not going to happen.

Journalist

Just on that regional connectivity as well, of the three providers Telstra's really the only one that has the closest to full coverage in any state or territory. Would you be wanting each of the telcos to have that minimum baseline, considering they're asking the question around Optus’s capability at the moment?

Webster

Look, I think that mandatory roaming is something that we should be looking at. Telstra's mapping, if you look at Telstra's mapping, they will tell you that they cover a whole lot more space than I personally think is actually covered. And my personal experience, plus many, many people - I've just been in Western Australia, people tell me that when they did have connectivity under 3G, they no longer have it and it's all over Australia. That is a problem. There's a massive problem for us. We are a small country in terms of numbers with very large distances, so we must have technological solutions. I think handing a USO to one company is something that we need to look at as well. We've done that in the past, worked for phone boxes, we're a little bit past phone boxes. So, yeah, look, I think there's a lot of work to do. We're in the process.

McIntosh

Thanks, everyone.

Webster

Thank you.