Minister denies Labor role in Optus outage
Under-fire minister Anika Wells has denied the Albanese government bears any responsibility for shock Optus outages.
Labor’s failure to implement six recommendations from a probe into Optus’s mega 2023 outage has nothing to do with the embattled telco’s triple-0 outage, Communications Minister Anika Wells says.
Ms Wells, who is herself under fire for her handling of the latest outage, will gather the chief executives of Optus, Telstra and TPG in Canberra this week to demand they do more to ensure Australians can call emergency services.
“Literally, I will be laying down the law,” she told the ABC on Monday.
“Australians must be able to rely on our triple-0 system and telcos must do better to give confidence back to Australians after the catastrophic failure on the part of Optus several weeks ago.
“It is a good time for everybody to get together and make sure our expectations are clear and to prepare for natural disaster season ahead.”
The Albanese government has implemented 12 of 18 recommendations from a review into Optus’s outage in 2023, which directly affected some 10 million Australians.
Some have suggested the latest outage, which has been linked to deaths, could have been avoided if all recommendations were implemented.
But Ms Wells denied that.
“All of the recommendations were accepted and 12 out of 18 are done and the rest of the work is well underway,” Ms Wells said.
“The Triple-0 custodian, which we will legislate later this week in the parliament, was established in my department back in March and that work has been going on to make sure we are forward-leaning and the system is best practice.
“Australians must be able to trust in triple-0.
“When there are outages, the system cannot be allowed to fail – that is on the telcos to do better.”
Pressed further on whether Labor bore any responsibility, she firmly pushed back.
“This is a catastrophic failure on the part of Optus,” Ms Wells said.
“They have spoken themselves to some of the things they have identified about what went wrong in their organisation a couple of weeks ago and it is my job to hold them to account to make sure they face serious consequences on the part of Australian taxpayers but also to make sure we restore the confidence in the system so Australians can trust in calling Triple-0 when they need it most.”
Chief executives hauled in
Ms Wells wrote to chief executives, Stephen Rue (Optus), Inaki Berroeta (TPG Telecom) and Vicki Brady (Telstra) ordering them to a meeting in Canberra on Tuesday, as Labor rushes through legislation to beef-up compliance powers for the triple-0 custodian.
Like her remarks on Monday, Ms Wells’ letter placed the impetus on telcos to do more and ensure they were complying with their legal obligations and building trust following two outages in two years.
September’s major interruption affected more than 600 Australians in South Australia, parts of rural NSW, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
“On November 1, new rules mean carriers must share real time network information detailing outages with relevant emergency services organisations and other appropriate entities including the Australian Communications and Media Authority,” the letter read.
“I request you meet with me in Canberra on Tuesday 7 October 2025 to update me on the system you have in place already to ensure these legal obligations are met and how you are ensuring outages are avoided so people have faith in the triple-0 system.”
Ms Wells, who faced criticisms after she told reporters she was “still a new minister to the industry” when asked whether she was listening more to regulators or telcos, will also face a grilling from the opposition this week when parliament resumes in Canberra.
The opposition also seized on her trip to New York in the days following the outage where she accompanied Anthony Albanese to promote Australia’s incoming under-16s social media ban.
Coalition communications spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh said Labor had failed to act on the 18 recommendations from a review conducted after the first Optus outage in 2023, and released in March 2024.
Then-communications minister Michelle Rowland had accepted all 18 points, which included forcing telcos to provide real-time information during outages, and for telcos to shut down their towers during outages to allow triple-0 calls to be conducted on other networks.
Ms McIntosh questioned whether Labor had “done everything in its power” to prevent the September outage from occurring.
“There were warning signs in 2023 when Optus had the first outage. No one died. People died this time. As I said, this is life and death.”
Originally published as Minister denies Labor role in Optus outage
