When 000 doesn’t answer, who will? Senate launches investigation on telcos

Australians may soon know instantly when their lifeline goes dark.

The Albanese government is ramping up pressure on major telcos after a deadly outage left Triple Zero callers without help.

Now, new rules could force Optus and Telstra to reveal network failures in real time.

Communications Minister Anika Wells has directed the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to tighten transparency rules following September’s fatal Optus outage.

In a formal letter, Wells informed ACMA that she intends to use her legal powers to mandate a public register of telecommunication network outages.

The register would display real-time data whenever a service failure affects emergency calls.

While ACMA and the telcos will still need to determine the exact technical details, the minister’s directive signals a firm shift toward greater public visibility over network reliability.

The announcement comes as political pressure intensifies, with both the Greens and the Coalition joining forces to establish a Senate inquiry into the September Optus outage.

The failure cut off Triple Zero access across parts of Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales, and was linked to three deaths.

Greens senator for South Australia Sarah Hanson-Young said the inquiry would closely examine the causes of the outage and its chaotic aftermath.

‘Triple-0 is an essential service and the Government must ensure that when Australians need to call for help, someone answers,’ Hanson-Young said.

Liberal senator Sarah Henderson echoed calls for accountability, saying the inquiry must uncover the full truth behind the breakdown.

‘After misleading Australians about when her office first knew about the outage, Labor’s hapless Minister for Communications Anika Wells must also appear before the inquiry. It is incumbent on the minister to do the right thing in the national interest and give evidence,’ Henderson said.

She added, ‘The role of the minister in safeguarding the integrity, resilience and public confidence in the triple-0 system is central to our inquiry.

‘The government’s inquiry by its own regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, is woefully inadequate and riddled with conflicts of interest. At the behest of the minister, ACMA delayed tougher emergency call service rules on carriers by six months and this has had serious consequences.

‘The Australian people deserve much better than this.’

The push for greater transparency in telco outages isn’t just about accountability—it’s about the real-world consequences when vital systems fail.

The September Optus disaster was a sobering reminder of what happens when communication lines go down and help can’t be reached.

For a closer look at the impact of that incident and how it unfolded, here’s another story worth reading.

Read more: When phone networks fail: The deadly cost of Optus’s latest crisis

As political and public scrutiny mounts, one question remains—will real-time transparency be enough to restore trust in Australia’s emergency call system?