Transcript - FiveAA Mornings - 19 November 2025

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

19 November 2025

Transcript 

FiveAA Mornings with Graeme Goodings

Topics: Triple Zero; Triple Zero Custodian; Samsung; TPG Telecom.  

E&EO … 

Graeme Goodings

Joining us now is the Shadow Minister for Communications, Melissa McIntosh. Shadow Minister, good morning.

Melissa McIntosh

Good morning. Thank you for having me on. And hello to all your listeners.

Goodings

Yeah, what a tragic situation. And can this be avoided?

McIntosh

Absolutely not - I don't want to be the person saying I told you so on such a horrible issue where sadly another person has died. But this is two months to the day, pretty much where we had the Optus outage, which your listeners would be very aware of.

Goodings

Yep.

McIntosh

And since that time, I've been calling on the government to really step up and have an independent investigation into the whole traffic Triple Zero ecosystem: the networks, the telco providers, the infrastructure and the handsets, because it's happening and it shouldn't be happening. And now there's thousands of people that have Samsung handsets that won't be able to use them in less than a month's time and that's not right. Australians shouldn't have to be pressured into purchasing new handsets with no notice because of a failure of the government with their 3G shutdown.

Goodings

So, is this a software issue or a hardware issue? Do people actually need to get a new phone?

McIntosh

They're going to have to, and I wish I had the answer to that - they're going to have to speak to their telco provider. Some of the phones will only require an update their software, which is hard enough, especially for elderly people, and then others will have to purchase a new phone, which again is really difficult if you don't have the money to do that, particularly on Christmas time. So I hope that telcos have leniency and help people with those handsets and I hope the government pressures the telco providers to really let people know. Sending a text message or an email is obviously not good enough because people aren't getting these messages through, they're just not. They're not opening their text messages because they're aware of scams or they're not receiving them, but something more needs to be done.

Goodings

Yeah, I mean, that's a reasonable point, isn't it? Because we all get so many text messages and we don't know if they're real or not. And you sort of think, oh, here's another scam.

McIntosh

Yeah.

Goodings

So there has to be a better way so people don't just disregard the information.

McIntosh

That's right. And the thing is, the telcos probably knew about this around a year ago or only came to light over the last month that this would happen. But the 3G shutdown happened a year ago, so there's been some mess up in the process once again, that has meant that we're only just finding out about these thousands of, you know, potential handsets that can't be used. And this is in addition to the network issues that we're experiencing. And just a couple of weeks ago there was, you know, the infrastructure - an infrastructure failure because somebody apparently stole something like a bit of cable from one of our major pieces of infrastructure. So, more needs to be done. When it comes to protecting the Triple Zero network, I called for it to be listed as an essential service, just like water and sewerage and all those things so there's extra protections in place. And we need to have an independent - a thorough independent investigation.

Goodings

It doesn't seem that there's any government oversight at all.

McIntosh

Well, I haven't - I don't know - if you're in the media, I haven't heard the Minister come up and speak to the Australian public in the last couple of days at all. She needs to do that and reassure the public that there is confidence in the Triple Zero system and if there isn't, what the government's going to do. The regulator, ACMA, sits underneath the Minister and she's appointed them to investigate. I believe this out - this issue that's just happened with the handsets where sadly, someone lost their life and the Triple Zero outage. But ACMA was caught up in the whole issue with the Optus outage. They were made aware of that outage on one day and the Minister didn't know until the next day. So, there's a whole lot of confusion there as well. So, the Minister has a responsibility as the Minister for Communications, to protect citizens. That's your number one responsibility. And now's the time to step up and let the public know what you're going to do.

Goodings

Well, as you've highlighted, there are people out there with phones that are going to become redundant and totally useless, and people might not realise it until a critical moment when they need to dial Triple Zero. What needs to happen?

McIntosh

I think the Minister first and foremost needs to put all the pressure she can on the telco providers to contact each and every person - each and every customer needs to be aware. And it can't just be a text message - set and forget. You need to contact those people until they answer, until you get through to them, because it is life and death when we're talking about the Triple Zero telecommunications system. So, let's go with that and put that pressure on. The telcos need to be transparent. I've also asked for a public register of Triple Zero outages so the Australian public can actually see what's going on behind the scenes. I think - we tend to get shocked every time this is happening, but I fear that this is happening more often than we realise as citizens. So that would be good too. But first and foremost, to get through this stage is the telcos need to take responsibility and ensure that all of their customers are aware.

Goodings

Well, certainly something needs to be done and done soon. Melissa McIntosh, thanks for your time.