Transcript - Sky News AM Agenda - 29 September 2025

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

29 September 2025

Transcript

Sky News AM Agenda with Laura Jayes

Topics: Triple zero outage; Optus; ACMA; Anika Wells; social media age minimum; UN. 

EO&E …

Laura Jayes

Melissa, thanks so much for your time. We had announced last week by Optus Kerry Schott is going to get in there, she's going to do an urgent review. But Paul Budde this morning has again told us that he thinks there should be a separate independent review into the technology. What do you think?

Melissa McIntosh

Thanks, Laura. Why are we here again? Last week I warned that this could happen again quite quickly. It has happened. The Communications Minister actually has in her powers to immediately investigate the Triple Zero network as part of the Telco Act. She's appointed ACMA to do the investigation. But like I've already said, ACMA has been part of the failed, you know, outage last week as far as the failed process.

Laura Jayes

Who should do it then?

Melissa McIntosh

So they - well, the Minister could appoint anyone, she could appoint an expert in the field.

Laura Jayes

Do you have someone in mind?

Melissa McIntosh

I heard your guests say that. I heard your guest say that, you know, there should be engineers involved, of course, but these are lives. Four people died. You've got to remember this. And the Prime Minister and the Minister have been overseas all week instead of dealing with this very important, very critical issue right here. And now, we've also got NBN, it seems have had an outage. So it should just not be about an investigation into Optus. What I'm calling from on behalf of the Coalition is an investigation into the whole Triple Zero ecosystem.

Laura Jayes

You said it would happen again, just. And the Minister has the power to enact an investigation here, an urgent one, but that doesn't mean, while that investigation is going on, that would prevent any further outages. So do you accept that if the problem is bigger or now we see that the problem might be bigger than we first thought, there are going to be further outages?

Melissa McIntosh

Remember this happened in 2023 and ACMA was appointed, there were a number of recommendations. It seems that those recommendations, many of them remain outstanding. Why isn't the government pushed to have these implemented before now? What I'm saying is things have move, moving too slow. There is not enough sense of urgency, there's not enough prioritisation and the Prime Minister and the Minister have been overseas, and this has been happening and she didn't act with urgency last week and get right onto her. ACMA is a bureaucracy and it's part of the failed process. We need things moving quicker. This is Australians lives - and they deserve - every single Australian deserves to have confidence in this most essential service when they need it most.

Laura Jayes

Just quickly, Anika Wells was at the UN talking about our world first ban on children under 16 using social media. This was actually something that the Coalition really thought of in the first place and did push under Peter Dutton. Is it still bipartisan?

Melissa McIntosh

On behalf of the families, you know, that have gone through such devastation with losing their children? I committed to ensuring that I could do everything I can to make it work. We're not questioning the intent of protecting children online. What I'm questioning is the government's readiness to have this implemented by the tenth of December. And there's still questions around which platforms are in or out around the education campaign to make sure that families, schools and kids are ready. If they're committed to this, they need to get it right. It's all well and good to be at the UN you know, speaking spruiking something that's not even happened yet. Get it right in your home soil. Look after Australians first and right now back to the triple zero outage. I don't think Australians have confidence in this most essential service and the government should be prioritising this.

Laura Jayes

Okay, Melissa, thank you.