00:00 There was a vacuum of information you may remember.
00:04 The outage started at around about 4am and media coverage started quite soon into the
00:10 morning and there was a lack of information from Optus, only a few basic statements coming
00:16 out from them.
00:17 And so into the void stepped Communications Minister Michelle Rowland to try and fill
00:23 in some of the blanks about what was known and what was not known.
00:26 And actually quite early in the morning she was on Radio National speaking to Patricia
00:31 Carvellis and PK actually put to her, "Well, are triple zero calls working?
00:38 Because we've had a listener write to us and say they tried to call an ambulance and couldn't
00:43 get through."
00:44 And the Minister said, "Well, yes, I'm being told they are working and that's very concerning.
00:50 I'll get back to you."
00:52 And what the documents show is that a little later that day, the Minister had a briefing
00:57 with Telstra and Telstra operates the triple zero emergency operation system.
01:04 So when you first call triple zero, it's a Telstra operator that will first answer your
01:08 call before directing it.
01:10 And at this meeting, Telstra says, "We're getting a lot of phone calls.
01:14 So we're getting a lot of phone calls through from non-Optus networks, but there are some
01:20 calls from Optus mobiles that seem not to be getting through."
01:24 And that's obviously a big but because there's meant to be this emergency camp on system
01:29 it's called where even during an outage, calls from a mobile phone are meant to be picked
01:34 up by another network so they can still get through to triple zero because obviously the
01:39 situation could be life threatening.
01:41 And what happened after that was Michelle Rowland did a press conference and she was
01:46 quite firm in saying that the emergency camp on service was working and that if people
01:51 used a mobile phone to call triple zero, it would work.
01:55 And so there are now questions about whether that was the right thing to do or whether
02:00 she should have expressed some of the doubt and concerns that were being raised with her
02:04 by Telstra, but also behind the scenes with the regulator, ACMA and her department.
02:09 Michael, given telcos are required by law to provide access to triple zero, even in
02:15 an outage, whose responsibility is it to let the public know if that is not happening?
02:20 Well, it's firmly with Optus and they have this obligation to provide this service and
02:27 they are under deep scrutiny now over this at the moment.
02:31 There's a Senate inquiry, but there's also this review that's been commissioned by the
02:35 government by Richard Bean, who is a former senior figure inside ACMA to say, well, what
02:42 happened with triple zero and also was the communication not only by the telco, but by
02:48 the government good enough in terms of informing the public about what was going on?
02:54 And so what's interesting about this obligation is there's no time frame set on the telco
03:00 to tell the public.
03:01 So we know from the documents that for several hours, Optus and the government were told,
03:07 well, this isn't working properly, but it took Optus until 1pm to tell the public.
03:13 And there are now big questions about Optus's actions, but also that of the government.
03:19 Let's hear from the opposition.
03:22 The minister's first and foremost responsibility is to be truthful and frank with the Australian
03:28 people.
03:29 And triple zero calls can be literally a matter of life and death.
03:36 And this is something where absolute accuracy is required in informing the public.
03:43 Yes.
03:44 So there's the opposition saying there's more questions to be answered here, not only by
03:49 the minister, but also by Optus about things like whether they tested this advice properly
03:55 before they put it out to the public that mobile calls to triple zero were working.
04:00 And these reviews and inquiries are underway, and there's going to be a lot more scrutiny
04:04 to come in the next weeks and months.
04:06 And what we've done with this freedom of information story today is put much more detail out in
04:13 the public.
04:14 And let's see what else comes forward.
04:15 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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