Transcript - Sky News First Edition - 29 October 2025

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

29 October 2025

Transcript

Sky News First Edition with Alex Thomas

Topics: BOM website changes; Triple Zero outage; Triple Zero inquiry; PM Joy Division t-shirt.

E&EO …

Alex Thomas

To talk about that and more, we can speak live now to the Shadow Communications Minister, Melissa McIntosh. Mrs McIntosh, let's just start with those BOM changes. Have you had a look at the new website? What do you make of them? 

Melissa McIntosh 

People rely on the BOM for weather, but also, and I know this because my community's been through it in floods, in fires, and you as a politician, as an MP, say to your people follow the BOM and the advice. So, when you start losing confidence in critical information sources like that it needs to be fixed very quickly. It's quite concerning to hear that people have found a way around the BOM new website and are accessing the old one. So much taxpayer’s money is being spent on this, government just needs to get it right. 

Alex Thomas

Has the government done everything it can to issue a ‘please explain’ to BOM. 

Melissa McIntosh

Of course, this is taxpayers’ money. When it's not doing its job efficiently, when people rely on it, you don't want a source that is so critical such as the BOM to be laughed about, for people to think it's a joke, and right now it's becoming a bit of a joke, and the government just needs to fix it. This is serious stuff. People rely on it in life and death situations like as I said, floods and fires and get it right before we hit the disaster season. 

Alex Thomas

Okay, Melissa, we're just going to have to interrupt the interview for two seconds. We apologise for this, but I think you'll understand that we're having to go to Jamaica urgently to speak to our CNN reporter there, Derek Van Dam, who's one of CNN's meteorologists. Melissa, we'll come back to you in a second. 

INTERVIEW INTERRUPTED BY BREAKING NEWS

Alex Thomas

Let's return to our interview, though, with Melissa McIntosh, the Shadow Communications Minister. Melissa, thank you for your patience. Hope you'll understand that it's hard to get through to our reporter there when we wanted to. It's all about how the communications are happening in that country over there. And talking of proper communication, I understand that you're satisfied that the Senate's going to have a proper investigation into last month's Triple Zero outage involving Optus. 

Melissa McIntosh

Yeah, thanks, and can I just say that they're harrowing scenes and of course, from here in Australia, we hope our Jamaican friends are doing okay. But it's also a reminder, we just talked about the Bureau of Meteorology that that communication service is essential in times of need. Of course, it's not hurricanes here in Australia, but we do have very severe weather events. So, let's get it right. And again, we're talking about a critical infrastructure, Triple Zero. Finally, we have a Senate inquiry coming up. I've been calling for an independent investigation into what happened. People's lives were lost when Optus Triple Zero Network went down. I've pushed the government so hard, kept the pressure on because Australians and their safety, protecting them should be the highest priority of a government. The minister who's responsible, the Communications Minister, left the country during the crisis. She's been slow to act. It's taken a lot of pressure calling for an independent inquiry, calling for an increase in the fines on telcos and calling for real time reporting by the government. So, we have a Senate inquiry coming up, it starts on Monday, I hope Optus appears up front and of course ACMA as well, the regulator, because they're involved in this failed process. 

Alex Thomas 

I mean, clearly mistakes happen, we all do it. But what are you hoping to hear from this inquiry? Sounds like just the unvarnished truth, right? So, we can avoid a repeat in the future. 

Melissa McIntosh 

Everything - we need to hear everything in this inquiry. Just yesterday in Gippsland, there's reports that a woman in her 70s, a former nurse, was unable to call Triple Zero and the telco provider didn't let the community know that there was going to be an outage to the service. So, a whole deep, thorough look into their infrastructure, into the whole telco ecosystem, into even the contracts that these telcos get. How can you get a government contract, big multimillion dollar contracts, at the same time that you're potentially getting fined for severely letting Australians down? So, let's not forget the seriousness of this. People's lives were lost. Australians, every single Australian relies on that critical service in their time of need, and the government needs to start prioritising Australians first. 

 Alex Thomas 

Before I let you go, the Leader of the Opposition, Sussan Ley, asked for the Prime Minister to apologise for wearing a Joy Division t-shirt. Do you think she was right to do that?

Melissa McIntosh 

I think Sussan made a powerful statement in Parliament yesterday. Anti-semitism is on the rise. Jewish people in this country are really scared. There has been a lot going on. It's around, you know, not only reading the room, but reading the sensitivities of the issue of the moment. So, it was a bit of an off call by the Prime Minister, but maybe he should be explaining why he loves that punk band so much. 

Alex Thomas

Interestingly, Bridget McKenzie and Matt Canavan have not backed Sussan Ley's call. Is that more cracks appearing in the Coalition? 

Melissa McIntosh

I would love for us not to be talking about what one Coalition member might be saying against another one and focusing on the real issues that are impacting Australians like the Triple Zero network, like even the BOM going, because that's around people's lives and holding the government to account. In my community, people are struggling like they've never struggled before under high energy prices. And I surveyed my community on issues like net zero, on issues like high energy prices and where they want our country to go in the future. So that's certainly where I'm focused. 

Alex Thomas

Okay, Shadow Communications Minister Melissa McIntosh, thank you for your time here on Sky News Australia.