Transcript - Sunrise - 19 November 2025

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

19 November 2025

Transcript 

Sunrise with Matt Shirvington

Topics: Triple Zero; Samsung; TPG Telecom.

E&EO … 

Matt Shirvington

For more, we're joined by the Shadow Communications Minister, Melissa McIntosh. Great to have you with us.

Melissa McIntosh

Thank you.

Shirvington

So, in 2025, the idea that you have a smartphone, at the very least you should be able to call emergency services. This is remarkable that this is happening.

McIntosh

Yeah – remarkable, devastating and I'm furious on behalf of the Australian people. We had the Optus disaster two months ago pretty much to the day where sadly, people did lose their lives. And since then, I've been warning that this could happen again. Trying to put pressure on the government to pull every lever they have, putting pressure on the telcos and then, sadly, we've had another death. And this time it's because those handsets aren't compatible. And Australians that own those Samsung handsets only have around 28 days to either get a new one or to download software. And that's really hard for many Australians. Think of older Australians who may not know how to download software, or people who just can't afford a new handset. It’s …

Shirvington

So, what do we do? Do we have a swap system where basically you hand your old one in that doesn't work and you get a new one?

McIntosh

Well, it would have been great if Australians knew this was coming. This information should have been made available a year ago. So, there's been all these delays and missteps and that's what - where we've resulted in this. I think that people that can't afford it, the telco should step up and provide handsets to people, but they need to let people know they need to be doing everything they can so every one of their customers, up to 50, 60,000 people are aware it's coming.

Shirvington

Some people were notified in regards to updating software via text. The issue with that is scam texts. People are aware of not wanting to click on links, etc.

McIntosh

How often are particularly older Australians saying, don't open that text message because it could be a scam. They're really concerned. So, it's absolutely logical that people aren't replying to those text messages or those emails. So, the Minister for Communications should come out and demand that the telcos are doing everything in their power to contact Australians about this.

Shirvington

Yeah, I agree. At a minimum. Thanks for joining us.

McIntosh

Thank you.