Media release - There are still too many questions about what went wrong with the triple zero outage

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

21 September 2025 

There are still too many questions about what went wrong with the triple zero outage

There is no question, the Optus triple zero network failure last Thursday has sent shockwaves across Australia, but the Albanese Labor Government must also answer questions.

Under the Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages) Industry Standard, telco providers are required to advise relevant government agencies of any outages. This includes the federal Department of Communications and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) as the regulator.

Despite many questions from the Coalition and journalists, the Minister for Communications has maintained she was not advised until Friday afternoon – a full 24 hours after Optus became aware of the outage.

However, Optus CEO Stephen Rue advised the media that Optus had notified regulatory and government agencies at around 2pm on Thursday.

The Minister for Communications has evaded providing an accurate timeline about when the federal government was notified.

This incident has involved a loss of lives, and lack of access to triple zero is an unacceptable situation. There remain numerous unanswered questions – both for Optus and for the government and its agencies.

If the Department of Communications or ACMA have failed in their duty to act on the notification they received from Optus that is even more unacceptable. They have a responsibility to act on these matters with the greatest of urgency and that includes notifying the Minister for Communications. Did they fail to do this?

This is why the Coalition has called for an urgent, independent investigation, into not just Optus but the full triple zero ecosystem including federal government departments and the regulator.

The Albanese Labor Government has a responsibility to inform the community what they knew and when. Anything less is unacceptable.