Transcript - 2SM Mornings - 30 September 2025

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

30 September 2025

Transcript

2SM Mornings with Brent Bultitude

Topics: Triple Zero outage; Triple Zero inquiry; Triple Zero outage inquiry; Optus; ACMA; NBN; Telstra; UOMO.

EO&E …

Brent Bultitude

Melissa McIntosh, thank you for your time. Welcome to the Super Radio Network. I better push the. She's still on hold. Melissa, I didn't push the button.

Melissa McIntosh

That's okay. At least it's not the Triple Zero networking. You're not opted.

Bultitude

I was going to say. Yes, exactly that. Welcome to the Super Radio Network. Thank you for your time this morning.

McIntosh

Thank you for having me on.

Bultitude

Could I ask you, is a single mobile tower, when it goes down and Triple zero calls, they fail. Who should be held accountable, the telcos or the government for not fixing the rules?

McIntosh

That's a really good question. I think they both have responsibility. The telcos. If they do go down in that situation, it's called camp-on. So another telco should pick up the Triple Zero call. So Optus goes down, Telstra should be there to back them up or TPG or whatever it is. And that hasn't occurred in these cases with the Triple Zero network. So people haven't been able to get through at all when it comes to the government, they should have picked up the recommendations when Optus had an outage in 2023. There were around 18 recommendations from the investigation then and it's not clear how many of these have been implemented. And now we've had a really dramatic outage where sadly four people have passed away and the government's calling on another investigation by the very body that has been involved in this particular process stuff up, I could say, because ACMA is the regulator. When Optus went down, they contacted ACMA as part of its legal requirements on the Thursday, the Minister said she didn't find out until the Friday. So ACMA certainly cannot investigate this current outage. Australians rely on Triple Zero in the greatest time of need. And I'm going to be keeping the pressure on the government. I'm sure they hope the issue goes away. Keep the pressure on our telco providers, because this is absolutely essential, absolutely essential. I think all your listeners would agree that when they need to call Triple O, they should be able to get through.

Bultitude

Well, a lot of our listeners on the Super Radio Network, when we talk on the Chris Smith show, we go all over Australia, I mean, literally all over Australia, something like 50 different radio stations. And a lot of those radio stations are in regional areas. So regional Australians pay the same bills as city customers, so why should they accept a lower standard of safety and service? And it's dangerous, is it not, Melissa, for regional tech to rely on a single mobile tower for emergency services? Hasn't there got to be a better plan?

McIntosh

There absolutely has to be a better plan. And I know that regional and rural Australia have been putting up with these issues for a long time and that's not acceptable. And that's why the coalition has put in a Shadow Minister for Regional Communications that works with me. And we will be having a top priority policy development, as you mentioned, David Littleproud is really passionate about this as well, because we need to get it right. In a few years time, that's happening now, satellites are going to be filling up our skies even more and people be more reliant on these satellites. And I've got a question here around - these satellites are actually all foreign owned right now. We're putting a lot of our investment into foreign owned satellites. So I'd like a real push for us to start looking at having our own sovereign capability in our telecommunications networks. We need to have reliability, whether they're satellites in the sky, whether our telephones on the ground, people calling up Triple Zero, or our infrastructure that is ageing and falling apart in some cases. I'm sure regional listeners would know that it's been happening for too long. And I'm disappointed that the government isn't prioritising these very serious issues.

Bultitude

Australians just expect triple zero to work, Melissa, don't they? They don't care how it operates or who operates it. They just expect on the very worst day of their lives, when they need to call this, that it works and it works immediately. Goodness me, to think that there's been a problem twice now in less than a month, beggars belief.

McIntosh

It's absolutely - you're right, beggars belief. But it's not just Optus. We've had the NBN experience an outage which has impacted triple zero calls, and we've had Telstra, you know, just the other day, experience an outage. And my question is, how often is this happening? We should have a register, a public register, when an outage immediately gets recorded, so everyone in this country can see what's going on - we have transparency. I think there's not enough transparency and there's not enough responsibility right now to ensure this most essential service is running. We're about to approach bushfire season over summer. People need confidence that they can call that essential service.

Bultitude

Labor's new. What do they call it? The UOMO. Long name UOMO. Their plan promises mobile coverage reform by 2027. Isn't that too late when lives are already at risk now?

McIntosh

I think, because they're going to be, as far as we can see, reliant on satellite technology, and that is the future. And I know, I hear from regional colleagues that say that it does help across regional communities, but you're right, it's too slow. We're waiting on, you know, they announced this prior to the election, we're waiting on what it is all about. I think the government, if they've made this commitment to regional Australia, they should be telling Australians what they're going to be doing. I think that's really important. And as we said, we're seeing the worst of it right now with these triple zero outages that just should not be happening at all.

Bultitude

Melissa, who do you think should pay for maintaining the mobile coverage in remote areas? Telcos, taxpayers or both?

McIntosh

That's a really good question. I think the telcos have a responsibility to maintain the infrastructure. It has been a long agreement that the government does invest in that. I think that's important as well, that there is government investment to protect Australians, to give them the coverage they need. But this needs to be worked out and done better, and that's what our policy development will be doing, working with The Nationals. So I look forward to that because we need to get it right for regional and rural Australians and all Australians, in fact.

Bultitude

How much should we rely on new technology like satellite? You've already said that this morning. But how much should we rely on it, particularly if we don't own those satellites?

McIntosh

Yeah, you're right. And I think there's still question marks. I think it's, you know, that technology is the future, but we are reliant on foreign satellites right now. And of all companies, it was Optus that was looking to be the first company here in Australia to be having a satellite. You know, I don't know how reliable that is, but they were working with universities in developing this. I think that's really important, to have our own satellites in our own skies. But we do – a lot of people still do have landlines. When the NBN went out, it impacted people that were on landlines and they. I think they thought people could just use their mobiles. But not everyone is on a mobile phone still, so, you know, the majority of people are. But things will change. Technology will keep moving fast, but I think we need to have our eye on our own sovereignty. It’s really, really important as we go through these emerging technologies. But that seems like the future. Right now, we need to get triple zero right for Australians and that should be the government's number one Priority, not traipsing off overseas while this crisis has been unfolding.

Bultitude

So I believe there is a meeting, or I was told, I think I read somewhere this morning that there is a meeting today with the Communications Minister. And what is happening? There's a meeting today with Anika, they say she’s hauling, they say Optus bosses, even the Singaporean parent company, over the coals, to explain why Australians can no longer rely on the phones. Were you expected to be involved in that meeting?

McIntosh

We've requested a meeting as well. It's really hard to get the Government to allow the Opposition in. I only recently was granted a briefing by the Minister's communications department after a lot of asks. So, of course we would like to be involved. We want - I think it's too important to be political in the outcome. I will continue to put pressure on the government. I think they have been too slow on this. This outage that sadly resulted in four deaths was over a week ago now. And then the Minister went overseas to New York and now she's back and she's sort of picking up the issue again. Well, the issue didn't go away. It happened again in Dapto and it's constant and I'm concerned that it's going to keep happening in our summer season when people are going to be reliant on it if any disasters strike.

Bultitude

It was just, I suppose, unbelievable to think that again, in reference to another triple O outage, this time on the south coast, happened on Sunday after what had happened about a week before. I mean, it was just unbelievable to think that it could happen almost twice in a week. Melissa.

McIntosh

Yeah, and I fronted the media when the Minister was overseas. I'm like, well, I'll get out and keep the pressure on the telco providers. And I said, well, this is - we're at risk of this happening over and over again. That's why the government needs to prioritise an independent investigation. And under the Telco act, the Minister can in fact appoint urgently somebody with technical expertise to go into Optus and look at what's going on and actually try and fix it. But she hasn't done that either. She doesn't need legislation, she just needs approval from her Cabinet. And, you know, why is this happening so slowly when we're getting multiple outages, too slow, not enough prioritisation, not enough care for Australians.

Bultitude

Alright, we'll leave it there. Thank you for your time.