Transcript - 6PR Perth Live - 7 October 2025

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

7 October 2025

Transcript

6PR – Perth Now with Oliver Peterson

Topics: Triple Zero outage; Triple Zero Custodian; Optus; ACMA; TPG; Telstra.  

E&EO …

Oly Peterson

Melissa McIntosh she joins me from Parliament House in Canberra. Good afternoon.

Melissa McIntosh

Good afternoon, Oly.

Oliver Peterson

Is it good that the 000 custodian will be given more power?

Melissa McIntosh

We've been waiting for this for a year and a half. This is how long the government has been sitting on the recommendations of the Bean Review after the first Optus outage and it has taken a really traumatic outage where sadly, four people have died, including in WA, for the government to suddenly prioritise doing something about the 000 network and we're rushing legislation through Parliament. I received a draft late last night and it was introduced today at midday. So, I think it's really unacceptable what the Minister, her lack of, you know sensibility in ensuring that the government is doing something. She went to New York instead of dealing with this issue, and now we're all rush, rush.

Oliver Peterson

Do you think she should have come home from the United Nations General Assembly as soon as this happened?

Melissa McIntosh

She was here when the 000 outage happened. She appointed ACMA, the regulator, to investigate Optus, and then she jumped on a plane and left for a week, so she left the crisis as it was occurring. That's unacceptable. There is nothing more important for a government than looking after your citizens. So, I think she made a wrong decision there.  ACMA as well, where we're learning ACMA found out about the Optus outage on the Thursday and the Minister was saying she didn't find out until the Friday. Well, what happened between that time, as part of her government. So, we have a lot of questions. We've been probing the Minister today in Question Time because I think Australians need to know they're losing confidence in the 000 network and then losing confidence in this Minister.

Oliver Peterson

Has the government dropped the ball when it comes to the priority of the 000 network and not staying on top of ensuring the telcos have this operating 24/7?

Melissa McIntosh

Without question, the fact that we are rushing legislation through in the very last days of Parliament for the year when the government has been sitting on recommendations for a year and a half after the first outage, I think that signals that the government has not prioritised ensuring that this doesn't occur. There's nothing more important than people being able to make a triple zero call in their greatest time of need. And the government should have been holding the telcos to account prior to this. We're also calling, the Coalition is calling, and it's not in the legislation, for a public register. So, when there is an outage, all Australians know what is going on. We need transparency. We're hearing a lot from Australians. I'm receiving emails every day. Now, from people saying that they're having trouble getting through to 000, it's because people are genuinely concerned.

Oliver Peterson

And it's there for that life and death situation for an emergency. The CEOs there of Optus, Telstra, TPG, were in Canberra today obviously today meeting with the Minister, should they have all fronted the press pack afterwards?

Melissa McIntosh

They should have fronted the press pack, of course. The Minister should have fronted the press because it's telling the Australians what went on in those closed-door meetings. But this is 3 weeks too late. Maybe she could have called the telcos together instead of going overseas and actually put some urgency behind what she's asking of these telcos. So, I think a lack of urgency, a lack of prioritisation and lack of care, and now we are asking genuine questions of the Minister about what she found out, when and why she's been so slow.

Oliver Peterson

And you still think there needs to be that full independent inquiry?

Melissa McIntosh

I absolutely think there needs to be a thorough, independent investigation. You can't be the investigator if you're part of the failed process. ACMA is the regulator they found out on the Thursday because Optus had to let them know by law and the Minister is saying she didn't find out until Friday afternoon. What went wrong? If you are the investigator, how do you investigate yourself?

Oliver Peterson

Melissa McIntosh, thanks for your time.