Transcript - Press conference - 24 September 2025

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

24 September 2025

Transcript

Press conference – Sydney, NSW

Topic: Optus outage.

EO&E …

Melissa McIntosh

We have to remember, the reason why I'm standing here today to talk about Optus is because four people have sadly passed away because of a major mishandling of an upgrade by Optus. And the Optus CEO has just stepped up in front of the media and announced that this was due to human error when a diversion process was not adhered to. So, each day right now we are getting drip fed a little bit more information. It's still not clear exactly what has happened and now it seems like the Optus CEO is doing the job of the Government by saying they're also going to be looking into which recommendations of the Bean review have not been met.

Well, where is the Minister for Communications on this? She's in the UN taking selfies when she should be here fronting the Australian public. Four people have died, including a baby. Yet the priority of this Minister is going to the UN.

I've said already, I do not think that it is right that the Minister has appointed ACMA as the investigator in this issue when ACMA has clearly been part of the process breakdown. Optus has said on Thursday, by law, which they are required to do, they alerted both ACMA and the Department of Communications about the outage and the Triple Zero issue. Yet ACMA did not apparently alert the Minister. The Minister found out on Friday. More needs to be done. The Minister has the powers right now. Right now, she could be here in this country. She has the powers to appoint an expert to oversee and look deeply into the Triple Zero network. This cannot happen again.

My question is to the Minister. Why is it more important for you to be at the UN in New York than here in Australia? And four people have died of a serious issue going on right now in your portfolio questions.

Journalist

Alright, so, Melissa, firstly, we've obviously heard from Optus’ parent company, Singtel, today. It's apologised to the families of the victims. This is coming almost a week after the fact. Do you think that's too late for the parent company to be getting involved?

Melissa McIntosh

I think the whole process from the beginning has been too slow, too late, not enough care from all parties, including the Government right now, not being in the country, being at the UN. Of course, Singtel should be apologising. They're the owner of Optus. Of course the Optus CEO should be fronting up to the Australian people and giving clear answers.

There's a responsibility, Australians expect that Australian customers are losing confidence in Optus, they're losing confidence in the Triple Zero network and they're losing confidence in the CEO. And I imagine they've been losing confidence in this Minister.

Journalist

Do you think the CEO needs to go or would that be a knee back reaction?

Melissa McIntosh

I think when the issue is this big, the pressure has to be at the top. He's taken responsibility by stepping out. He's declared it himself. It stops with him. I've said I think if Australians have lost confidence in his company and in him, that would be the next logical and fair statement.

Journalist

Also look, there's a bit of talk about whether or not Optus would face a fine for this. Is that something that you'd like to see happen?

Melissa McIntosh

Optus faced a $12 million fine when this happened in 2023 and there were no deaths, four deaths this time. But it seems to be with that fine and with ACMA doing the investigation, having recommendations that we are in a worse position. So, something more needs to be done. And as I said, the minister should be ex the power she has right now to put an expert in and looking deeply into the Triple Zero network, because what guarantee do we have that this isn't going to happen again very quickly?

Journalist

Yeah, I also suspect you - I might know the answer to this question, but are you satisfied with Optus level of outreach with the actual families of those effects, communicating with customers involved, that kind of thing?

Melissa McIntosh

It's really harrowing because this is real life stuff. These aren't numbers on a page, these are families, real Australian families who are going through such a terrible, traumatic time right now. I can't speak on behalf of the CEO, but I would think it would be your top priority to be reaching out to them and making sure that they know that Optus cares. I expect they're not feeling that, but that's up to the Optus CEO. He seems to believe he'll do that when the time is right for him.

Journalist

Yeah, that's pretty much one of the questions I had. What you said at the top really covered a lot of it. Is there anything else you wanted to say?

Melissa McIntosh

Yeah, I just want to reiterate that this is a really serious issue, and I feel like the government might be hoping that day by day it goes away. It's not going to go away. There's no resolution right now. The Minister has appointed ACMA, which is actually involved in the breakdown of the process. That is not good enough. The Minister going to the UN is not good enough. There are so many questions still unanswered, and I think Australians rightly are wanting and deserve more.