Transcript - Press conference (Triple Zero) - 18 November 2025

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

18 November 2025

Transcript 

Press conference – Penrith, NSW

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

E&EO … 

Melissa McIntosh

I am really saddened, to be honest, to be standing here again today talking about a death due to a failure to connect with Triple Zero and you never want to say I told you so and you certainly don't want to say I told you so when it is something as serious as this. I have been warning for two months, it is actually two months to the day where we sadly lost a number of lives when people who were Optus customers couldn't make those calls, those drastic calls in their greatest time of need.

And since then, I have pulled every single lever possible. I put amendments through Parliament on behalf of the Coalition to legislation that was rushed through. The Minister alerted us that there was a Custodian doing this work within her Department since March and they required the powers to do more. What have they been doing since March?

That is a question that every Australian will be asking: what has this custodian been doing? What has the regulator, ACMA, who the Minister has appointed as the investigator, been doing? And what has the Minister herself been doing? The warnings have been loud and clear.

A month ago, we found out that there will be a number of Samsung handset devices that would not be compatible, and this goes all the way back to the botched up the failed 3G network shut down by the Albanese Labor Government. I stood in this very spot and warned that people may not be ready to move on to another device. Perhaps they couldn't afford a new device, and they certainly may not know about it.

Have the telcos been calling every single customer they have? There's around 50,000, possibly more customers impacted by this. The Minister needs to stand up and demand that every single telco that has customers impacted are doing everything in their power to make sure that their customers are aware and they can move on to new handsets before this happens.

But this is too late. This is absolutely too late. We're standing here today talking about another death. This is a person in Australia who has family members, loved ones, people who care about them, people who would be impacted forever because they could not make that phone call when it was needed to be made in their most dire time of need.

So, as a local MP, I'm devastated. You never want this to happen in your community. As an Australian, I am furious. I'm absolutely furious with the government for not doing enough. I called for a public register of outages - public. I called for the Triple Zero network to be listed as an essential service under critical infrastructure, and I called for an independent investigation.

The Minister, in her comments I read in the media today, has said, well, this will be investigated. What - she's just adding this outage that resulted in a death to a list of investigation items. That is what wouldn't Australians deserve so much more. I've warned about this and each day we wake up, and I hope this is the last, but this should not have happened at all.

And I'm here to take questions as well. Thank you.

Journalist

Was this particular issue foreseeable, given you had an issue with the device that couldn't access a particular network? Could many other people have been affected by this as well?

McIntosh

I'm very concerned about how many people could be impacted and I know that TPG says they are making those calls to people, but how many more people could be impacted? It's up to 50- 60,000 customers that have these devices. What are the telcos doing?

That's what I'm saying. The Minister should be using all her leverage and all her power to be saying to these telco providers, stop just sending emails because not everyone opens their emails, or stop just sending text messages because maybe they don't receive them. You've got to do everything you can to ensure Australians know that their handsets may like December. We're talking about December, when every single handset may not work.

So just on Christmas we have more disasters like this and having even this one is not good enough. We've been warning about serious issues within the whole telecommunications ecosystem when it comes to Triple Zero and it hasn't been resolved.

Journalist

Is it premature at this stage, though, to say that this outage led to the death, given that the relative then called New South Wales Ambulance within, I think, a minute or so?

McIntosh

We believe - we don't know all the details, but we're hearing that it could have been from another phone, but that doesn't matter. The point is this person was trying to make phone calls on their device that was no longer compatible, and they couldn't get through in their greatest time of need?

At the very least, Australians should have faith and confidence that they can call Triple Zero. And we are talking about, sadly, this death. And my heart goes out to the families impacted first and foremost. But this isn't the only death. We've had other deaths as well, and that's not good enough. And it can be one death, three deaths or 100 - doesn't matter. Even one is too many. When we have been warning about this and the government is not doing enough, not using all of its powers. Remove ACMA as the investigator, they are caught up in the whole issue with the Optus outage and the failed processes put in a proper independent investigation and make changes so Australians have confidence again in Triple Zero.

Journalist

From what we know about this device, it's a pretty simple, probably quite cheap smartphone. Do we need better laws around the importation or the retailing of particular phones that maybe don't like service particular bands?

McIntosh

Well, the fact that this is part of the failed 3G shutdown, the government should have been on top of this more from the beginning. It took a whole year, a whole year, for this to be discovered that there was an issue with these particular devices. And then customers have only been given 28 to, what, 35 days to get a new device. I know people in my community, not everyone could afford to go out now at Christmas - when they might have kids who want Christmas presents, it's the end of year - to go and buy a new handset. So how are those people being looked after? So forget about whether we should be looking at the devices, let’s look at what the government should be doing in ensuring Australians are ready for this, because this was their 3G shutdown, it is on them.

Journalist

There have been reports of Triple Zero outages in remote Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. Have you heard word of that? And what are your thoughts on that?

McIntosh

Yeah, I think, and I speak to my Nationals colleagues about this all the time and I've been working really closely with Anne Webster on regional communications because they say in remote and regional communities, this is happening a lot. And that's why there's going to be an increased reliance on new technology like satellites and the infrastructure is failing. And we know there are infrastructure failures because we had one just the other week when, you know, when infrastructure failed customers and there were potential outages there.

So whether it's the infrastructure or whether it's the phone sets or whether it's the network itself, that's why we need an independent investigation. That's why I put through an amendment to Parliament as well, to have Triple Zero listed as an essential service under critical infrastructure. I think it's a complex issue, but I think if we have sewerage listed, if we have water, we need to be looking at this to be listed as well, to give, you know, another layer of protection for Australians.

Journalist

And just finally, given what we know about these particular devices, is there anything that you think that can be done immediately to prevent further possible deaths?

McIntosh

I think the Minister needs to get on her game, prioritise Australians, and actually put pressure on the telcos to be alerting every single customer that this is happening. An email or a, you know, a text message to tell them is obviously not working. I've had phone calls and emails to my office asking my office what can we do because they're not - they're not getting it. They're hearing about it in the media but they're not getting enough communications. So when this links back to the government's own 3G shutdown and the failure to action that correctly, well, the government has a responsibility to do the right thing by Australians.

Thank you. Any other questions?

Journalist

A couple of questions from me. Sorry, just on another matter.

McIntosh

I'll take this one because it's on, it's on this issue.

Journalist

The same matter. Yeah, I'll be quick. First of all, can we just clarify is this a TPG issue or is this a Samsung issue?

McIntosh

It's a TPG customer and it's with a Samsung device we believe and this is what we've been warning. So there are Optus, Telstra customers, TPG with these devices and it could be up to 50 or 60,000. But it's TPG that has alerted people today and we're trying to get to the bottom of it with more information.

But it is just one issue. It could be, you know, we've had a device now, two months ago to the day we were talking about a network outage where it looks like camp-on didn't work and people couldn't call Triple Zero at all. But we're also talking about infrastructure and that's why we need an independent investigation into the whole, the whole ecosystem.

Journalist

And my other question is under the new rules that came out last year, the network providers get 28 to 30 days I believe from the moment they notify the customers to then having to legally shut down or make sure those phones aren't able to be used anymore. Given that in this situation they just sent one text message to the customer, do you think that the network should have a month-long period before they have to act?

McIntosh

This is the really disgraceful thing about this. One of them, that the 3G shutdown happened over a year ago. So it took over a year for it to become public knowledge that these devices would not be suitable and they wouldn't be reliable. And there was an outage that people could call Triple Zero and now people only have 28 days, about 35 days and the onus is back on the customer to do something about it.

That's not fair. That's pretty un-Australian to me. And when people are sadly dying because they can't get through to Triple Zero; this is a crisis, this is a national emergency and that's why I’m asking the Minister to step up and actually do something about it. We rushed legislation through Parliament for a Custodian - that had been sitting in her Department since March, and I'm questioning what have they been doing - to have more power. Well, let's see some of that power being actioned.

Journalist

That's all from me.

McIntosh

Thank you.

Journalist

Yes. So just on the Coalition's energy policy, we've heard that it's going to be technology agnostic and we'll consider all power methods. Do you personally support the funding of new coal fired power stations?

McIntosh

Thanks. You're right, it is going to be technology agnostic when it comes to our pathway, our -Australia's energy future. And I even surveyed my community on this - and I'll just quickly, I know you're asking a question about coal - my community is very open to nuclear power. We want more data centres here in Western Sydney and we - there's a lot of pressure on the local energy grid and that's not sustainable.

The government - state governments are already extending the life of current coal fired power stations and right now I don't believe there's any proposals on the table for new coal power. But in the future it will be on a market basis and I think the Opposition Leader has made that very clear. And I believe the Shadow Minister for energy, Dan Tehan’s about to step up to talk more about our plan.

Journalist

Thank you.

McIntosh

Thank you. Thanks everyone. Appreciate it.