Who answers for Triple Zero

Two major Optus outages sit 22 months apart, on 8 November 2023 and 18 September 2025. Between them, and since, the system around Triple Zero has been reviewed, legislated and re-priced. This article asks one question of all of it: when the duty fails, who answers, and for how much?

After the first outage, a government-commissioned review made 18 recommendations, and the government accepted every one ¹. Four days after the second major outage, the government said 12 of the 18 were in place, with the rest underway ²; Optus's own assessment, agreed by a consultant it engaged, was that the three recommendations addressed to Optus and other carriers had been implemented ³. A review commissioned by the Optus Board afterward found the second major outage came from a series of at least ten mistakes by Optus employees and a contractor ³. A Senate committee has now recommended the government consider a statutory authority to take over the Emergency Call Person function, now performed by Telstra, and commission an independent review of the regulator itself ⁴⁵.

The penalty story is one duty, three price tags. The same rule, requiring compliance with the emergency call service determination, ended in paid infringement notices for the first outage ⁶. The Federal Court case over the second major outage runs under a $250,000 cap per contravention, in the regulator's own words ⁷. Since 31 October 2025, a breach of the same rule can cost up to $30 million per contravention ⁸.

01After the first outage

The government-commissioned Bean Review into the 8 November 2023 outage delivered 18 recommendations on 21 March 2024. On 17 May 2024 the government accepted all 18 and said it would implement them over the next 12 to 18 months ¹.

The 18 were not addressed to Optus alone. Nine were changes for government to carry out, six were joint changes for government and Optus and other carriers, and three were directed specifically at Optus and other carriers, a split the Optus-commissioned Schott Review sets out ³.

The government's acceptance carried two qualifications. It accepted all 18, but noted that Recommendation 2, a Triple Zero Custodian, needed further investigation, and it agreed only in principle to extend the roaming work to temporary roaming during outages, Recommendation 14, noting that implementation may not be feasible due to mobile network capacity ³. The second major outage, on 18 September 2025, fell 489 days after that acceptance, inside the 12 to 18 month window the government had set for itself ¹.

The same Senate committee that would go on to report on the 2025 outage had already reported on the 2023 one, in a separate inquiry, in September 2024 ⁹.

02At the second major outage: what each side says was done

Four days after the 18 September 2025 outage, the government said 12 of the 18 Bean recommendations had been put in place, with the rest underway. That is the government's own claim, not a verified count as at the date of the outage ².

The Department, for its part, says one recommendation remains outstanding. Recommendation 18, a review of all Triple Zero legislation and regulation, is, on the Department's own undated page, the final outstanding recommendation; its public consultation ran from 26 May to 30 June 2026, and its report is due to the Minister, via the Triple Zero Custodian, by March 2027 ¹⁰.

In its own Senate submission, Optus put the wider position differently: "Despite improvements implemented since that time, the 2025 outage shows that further action is required by industry and government to collaboratively ensure the resilience of the Triple Zero ecosystem" ¹¹.

All three counts, the government's 12 of 18, the Department's naming of Recommendation 18 as the last outstanding, and Optus's assessment of its own three, are claims made by the parties whose own work is being assessed. None of them is a regulator's finding.

03The Schott Review: at least ten mistakes

The Optus Board commissioned Kerry Schott AO to review the 18 September 2025 outage, and her report, dated 12 December 2025 and released on 18 December 2025, found the failure came from a series of at least ten mistakes by Optus employees and a contractor ³.

Two network alerts, the report found, were noted as related to a firewall upgrade underway and not investigated further: one was checked by the contractor; the second, in the Network Operations Centre, was notified to Optus; and both were simply noted as related to the upgrade ³.

The report itself calls its improvement list a checklist: 21 items under the heading "Checklist: Possible Improvement Measures", numerous measures which the Board and management "may wish to consider and implement" ³.

Optus's own account, in its FY26 results, gives the same 21 items a different label ¹².

Optus chairman John Arthur said, as the ABC reported on the day of release, that the board was acting on individual accountability ¹³.

04The Senate committee: eleven recommendations

The Senate Environment and Communications References Committee's inquiry, "Triple zero service outages", was referred on 28 October 2025, and its reporting date changed six times ¹⁴. There is no dissenting report; Labor senators and Coalition senators each filed additional comments ¹⁵. The committee handed its report down on 21 September 2026 ⁵, with 11 recommendations ⁴.

One recommendation goes to the Emergency Call Person function, currently performed by Telstra; the committee recommends the government consider a statutory authority to take it over ⁴⁵.

A second recommends turning scrutiny on the regulator itself.

Labor senators cautioned against acting on that recommendation before other work is finished.

Eight of the other nine recommendations, paraphrased from the committee's own chapter: use the government's current review to modernise the Telecommunications Act 1997 and recognise Triple Zero as an essential public safety service (Recommendation 1); have the Custodian review how welfare checks are carried out (Recommendation 3); build a reliability framework with mandatory standards, civil penalties and automatic compensation (Recommendation 4); and give ACMA substantiation notice powers to compel information and evidence, a separate power from the review of ACMA itself (Recommendation 6). The remaining four: require a text-based option for contacting Triple Zero (Recommendation 8); have ACMA work with operators and manufacturers on a public register of compliant, tested devices (Recommendation 9); have the ACCC develop a framework for sharing technical specifications between operators and device makers (Recommendation 10); and require more transparency, including outage data in telcos' annual reports (Recommendation 11) ⁴.

Recommendation 7 would have the government legislate to mandate domestic mobile roaming.

Labor senators had reservations about that recommendation too.

The committee's chair, Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, framed the report as a turning point.

On 21 September 2026, a federal government spokesperson said the government would consider the committee's recommendations ⁵. Telstra said it takes the report seriously and will carefully consider its findings and recommendations, and that its position on mandated roaming is unchanged ⁵.

On 1 October 2026 the ABC reported that, from that day, Telstra, Optus and TPG will activate temporary disaster roaming when one network goes down during a severe weather event, giving customers access to a rival network, with the telcos deciding when to activate it. The ABC said it is different from domestic roaming, which the ACCC is currently reviewing to see whether it should be mandated on a permanent and more widespread basis ¹⁶.

No formal government response had been located as of 8 October 2026.

Separately, ACMA announced on 11 December 2024 that Telstra, which performs the Emergency Call Person function, had paid more than $3 million for failing to comply with emergency call rules during a technical disruption at its Triple Zero call centre on 1 March 2024 ¹⁷.

The same release says ACMA member Samantha Yorke acknowledged that Telstra "has historically had a strong record of compliance in its role as the national Triple Zero operator", and quotes her saying "Telstra has been open and apologetic about the outage, communicated effectively to the public and took a variety of immediate actions when problems were identified." ¹⁷

05How much: one duty, three price tags

Both outages turn on the same legal duty: section 148(1) of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999, which requires compliance with the emergency call service determination. The 2023 outage ended in infringement notices for alleged contraventions of that section ⁶; the 2025 case seeks declarations under the same Act ⁷.

The notices themselves, dated 4 November 2024, show ACMA issuing three infringement notices under section 572E of the Telecommunications Act 1997, each for alleged contraventions of section 148(1) of the TCPSS Act, each amount calculated under section 572G(1)(b): Optus Mobile, $11,098,980; Optus Networks, $676,080; Optus Internet, $225,360. No court was involved ⁶¹⁸¹⁹.

The Optus Networks notice states the alleged contraventions as the officer's belief, and says what payment does not mean ¹⁸.

This case's first article, "The calls that did not connect", sets out that record in full.

ACMA's Federal Court case, announced 30 July 2026, seeks declarations that Optus Mobile contravened the TCPSS Act on 1,005 occasions, for alleged failures under sections 15 and 19 of the Emergency Call Service Determination. ACMA's own account states the maximum available to the court ⁷.

The 1,005 contraventions are alleged, not established; the allegations are untested. "One thousand and five", this case's account of the 2025 outage, sets out ACMA's choice to go to court rather than issue a notice, and its stated reason, which this article does not repeat.

Since 31 October 2025, the maximum for the same duty has been far higher. The Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Triple Zero Custodian and Emergency Calling Powers) Act 2025, Act No. 50 of 2025, passed both Houses on 28 October 2025 and received assent on 30 October 2025, commencing the next day. Its Part 4 inserted new penalty provisions into the Telecommunications Act 1997 setting a maximum of $30 million for each contravention of section 148(1) or (3) of the TCPSS Act, the same duty in both Optus outages, and of section 151D, ACMA's own emergency call service directions ⁸.

The bill's own record on the Parliament's website puts the same two dates in one line ²⁰.

The court case over the 18 September 2025 outage runs under a $250,000 cap per contravention, in ACMA's own words. The $30 million cap for the same duty commenced on 31 October 2025, six weeks after that outage.

The Department describes the same figure for breaching an emergency call service (ECS) direction ²¹.

The Minister's release of 28 October 2025 put the same figure in different words ²².

The figure grew as the bill moved through Parliament. The Parliamentary Library's Bills Digest, written on the bill as introduced, gave a lower ceiling for failing to comply with ECS directions ²³.

By the time the bill passed, that figure was $30 million.

Set the three periods side by side, on the one duty and nothing else. This article does not state the maximum available for the 2023 notices.

A second $10 million figure comes from a bill, and it is not the Triple Zero penalty. The Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill would raise the maximum for breaching industry codes and standards from $250,000 to the greater of 30,300 penalty units, about $10 million, three times the benefit obtained or, where that cannot be determined, 30 per cent of adjusted turnover, for conduct occurring wholly on or after commencement. It was first introduced on 12 February 2025 ²⁵²⁶.

It lapsed at the end of the 47th Parliament ²⁷; it was introduced again in the House on 28 August 2025, passed the House on 14 May 2026 and was introduced in the Senate on 22 June 2026. The Parliament's bill record, read on 8 October 2026, shows it still before the Senate ²⁸.

06What customers got

Telstra told the ABC it gave almost $1 million in credits to 33,000 customers and businesses that lodged complaints after its own outage in July 2026. Optus declined to tell the ABC how many customers it compensated, or by how much, after its September 2025 outage ⁵.

07Right of reply

THE RORT emailed questions on this article's subjects on 2 October 2026 to the media team of the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts, to ACMA, to Optus and to Telstra, and asked for a response by 5pm AEDT on Thursday 8 October 2026. The email to the Department asked that it be passed to the office of the Minister for Communications as relevant.

The Department's media team replied by email on 8 October 2026, saying the response could be attributed to a spokesperson from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts. The reply says:

The reply does not answer the six numbered questions. It does not say whether the $30 million maximum applies to any conduct before 31 October 2025, including the 18 September 2025 outage. It does not say whether the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill would change the maximum penalty for any breach of the Triple Zero rules. It does not say which 12 of the 18 Bean Review recommendations were in place when the government said so on 22 September 2025, which six were not, or whether the position was the same on 18 September 2025, and it does not give the date by which, on the Department's account, the 17 recommendations other than Recommendation 18 were complete. It does not say when the government will respond to the Senate report of 21 September 2026, or to its recommendation for an independent review of ACMA. It does not say whether the caution the ABC reported Labor senators expressing about reviewing ACMA is the government's own position. The statements on real time reporting of outages and on calls falling back to other networks are the Department's; this article has not tested them.

Optus's media team replied by email on 8 October 2026. The email is signed Optus Media Team and carries no request that it be kept off the record. It says:

That submission, quoted above ¹¹, also says that Optus "apologises to all those who sought help that day but could not rely on Optus to access that help", and lists changes Optus says it has made since the outage, among them daily Triple Zero test calls in every state and territory. The email also says:

It links a release that Optus dated 21 September 2026 ²⁹. The reply does not directly answer the questions put to Optus on this article's subjects. It does not say whether Optus contests the allegations in ACMA's Federal Court proceeding, and its Federal Court sentence names no matter, so this article does not say which matter it refers to. It does not give the date on which, by its own assessment, Optus implemented each of the three Bean Review recommendations addressed to Optus and other carriers, does not say how many of the 21 Schott Review measures are implemented, and does not say whether compensation was offered to customers after the September 2025 outage, to roughly how many, or why totals cannot be published.

In the release, Optus says it accepted all 21 recommendations of the review led by Kerry Schott AO and that "many recommendations have already been completed or embedded into business-as-usual operations" ²⁹. Those are Optus's statements, not findings; the release gives no number of completed recommendations and no completion dates.

The questions to ACMA included the file number of ACMA v Optus Mobile Pty Limited and whether directions or a hearing have been listed, whether the amount of the infringement notices for the November 2023 outage was the maximum an infringement notice could impose for those contraventions, and ACMA's response to the Senate committee's Recommendations 5 and 6, the independent review of ACMA and substantiation notice powers. No response was received from ACMA by the deadline, 5pm AEDT on Thursday 8 October 2026. ACMA said on 30 July 2026 that, as the matter is before the court, it will not be making any further comments at this time.

The question to Telstra on this article's subject was its response to the Senate committee's Recommendation 2, that the government consider a statutory authority to take over the Emergency Call Person function. No response was received from Telstra by the deadline, 5pm AEDT on Thursday 8 October 2026.

Any later response will be added here as a dated update.

08What comes next

The Department says the Triple Zero Custodian was established within the Department in March 2025 and that the Custodian's legislative function was confirmed by Act No. 50 of 2025 ²¹, the Act that carries the $30 million penalty and which the government says it fast-tracked ⁵. The review of the whole legal and regulatory framework around Triple Zero is the Department's Recommendation 18 review, reporting to the Minister via the Custodian by March 2027; the government has also said, through a spokesperson, that new outage reporting and public registers have been introduced ⁵.

This outlet did not locate a file number or listing date for ACMA's Federal Court case against Optus Mobile. ACMA says it will not comment further at this time while the matter is before the court.

THE REPORTING RORT's "Fourteen days" cites the Triple Zero infringement notices among its examples of duties Parliament wrote and regulators have enforced.

One duty, two major outages. Three price tags, on three different clocks.

If it's a rort, we cover it.