Melissa McIntosh MP

Shadow Minister for Communications

Shadow Minister for Women

Federal Member for Lindsay

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Dr Anne Webster MP

Shadow Minister for Regional Communications

Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories

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7 October 2025

Transcript

Press conference – Parliament House, ACT

Topics: Triple Zero outage; Triple Zero inquiry; Optus; ACMA; Andrew Hastie; immigration; gambling reform.

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E&EO …

Melissa McIntosh

The reason why we are standing here today, and I'm with Anne Webster, who is our Shadow Minister for Regional Communications, noting the government doesn't have a Minister for Regional Communications. We care about the regions. It's because four lives were lost during a Triple Zero outage. So we can talk about all of the politics, but we have to remember these are Australians who died when they were trying to make a phone call in their greatest time of need.

Now, the Minister delivered the draft legislation to my office last night for introduction into the House today. That's not caring about Australians. They've had a year and a half sitting on the recommendation of the Bean Review after Optus’ first outage in 2023 when lives weren't lost.

The Minister has stated in her speech to the Parliament that there has been a Custodian in place since March. Yet when she was asked by the media on 22 September about the role of the Custodian, she said, well, that's going to be the role of the investigation. It seems like the Minister didn't even know that a Custodian was already in place until she released that information to the Parliament today.

She said that this was a result of a steering committee. That steering committee was formed in May 2024. Yet it is our belief that none of the results of that committee, the results of the work of the establishment of the Custodian, has been made available. Committee members, the industry, were not aware of what was going on with this Custodian that has been in place since March 2025. What has the custodian been doing?

Four people have died, and the Minister called a PR exercise bringing the telco CEOs to Canberra today. We want a thorough, independent investigation into the Triple Zero ecosystem, not the regulator, not ACMA who were part of the failed process. And we want a public register of Triple Zero outages immediately when they happen.

Now, before I go to questions, I'll ask Anne to say a few words.

Anne Webster

Thanks, Mel. As the shadow for Regional Communications, sadly, the story that we have got over the latest Optus failure is actually not common for people who live in the regions. There are so many places where people cannot pick up a phone and dial Triple Zero. They also can't pick up a phone and call a loved one because there is no access to services. While this government talks about equity and not leaving anyone behind, the reality is that they leave Australians behind all the time out in the bush. And as Mel has said, we have a Shadow Regional Comms Minister because we value those who live in the bush.

We want to see change. We want to see change, as Mel said, in the Triple Zero ecosystem. It is a complex process, but we also want to see change for regional Australians so that regional Australians can call for help when they need it. It is absolutely unacceptable in 21st century that those who live out in the regions can't make that call.

Journalist

Melissa, are you satisfied with the way that Optus has handled this, the explanation or lack thereof of what’s actually gone wrong here?

McIntosh

Of course not. The CEO of Optus came out maybe twice and said, I'll be here every day answering your questions, then disappeared and we didn't see him again. But he's not the only person who disappeared. The Minister came out, appointed ACMA as the investigator and then she shot off overseas while this crisis was still unfolding, to come back three weeks later, introduce legislation at the closing of Parliament for the year.

Australians have been let down by Optus, have been let down by this government, and I fear that their confidence in the whole network, the Triple Zero network, is starting to fail.

Journalist

What would that investigation into 000 - what do you hope it would achieve, given we did have the Bean Review, which made a series of recommendations on how to fix the system?

McIntosh

The Bean Review made the recommendations, yet here we are and there's been four deaths. There is nothing more serious than protecting Australians and that has failed. Optus has failed Australians, their customers, and the government has failed in implementing recommendations. We are here a year and a half later and it's okay that the Minister's throwing this through the Parliament just before we close for the year? That's not acceptable. And she's talking about a custodian that she's now telling all of you as the media has been in place since March. That's the first time any of us has heard that. No one knows what that custodian has been doing. It surely hasn't been doing its job because there's been a major Triple Zero outage that has resulted in the loss of life.

So something needs to be done, an independent, thorough investigation, not run by ACMA when they are part of the failed process.

Journalist

Can you have your views, please, on the actual legislation that's being tabled and whether it's going to be robust enough to make a difference? And also, have you met also with the telco chiefs who are here today? Can you tell us more about what their response is?

McIntosh

I think on the legislation, as I've said, we were only delivered the draft legislation late last night, when the government's had a year and a half to develop legislation. So, it is only - it's less than 24 hours to have a thorough look at and speak to stakeholders about serious legislation in regards to people's lives.

To me, the work that we've done it looks like solving a bureaucratic problem with more bureaucracy. Giving powers instead to the government to solve some of the solutions of the government's issues. So, I don't think a secretary of a department overseeing ACMA is really going to solve the problems. It seems like the government's rushing this through as a bit of a  political PR exercise as opposed to solving the issues that are going to result in people being able to call our most important 000 network. And in regards to the telcos, I've asked to meet with the CEOs of the telcos I've been offered the government relations managers except for TPG and I'm meeting the CEO of TPG shortly.

Journalist

Is Optus brushing you? They won’t help you?

McIntosh

I've asked to meet with the CEO, and they've offered me the government relations manager. You know they've been happy enough to come down here and meet with the government, but I think if they want a thorough solution to this issue, it would be really good if they met with the Opposition as well.

Journalist

There are four sitting weeks over the next two and a half weeks. Would the Coalition be inclined in cooperating with the government to get this passed before the end of Parliament in two and a half months’ time?

McIntosh

We're hoping we can get this through in the interest of Australians. I don't think looking at this up front it really does anything to change what has occurred over the last few weeks where people died. I hope it does. The questions are around why wasn't this done sooner? Is this just more bureaucracy on bureaucracy? As I just said, having a secretary of the Department overseeing ACMA, is that really going to solve the issues? We want to ensure that people can pick up the phone, make a call to Triple Zero and it goes through. And like Anne said, this has been happening in the region constantly for a long time.

Is it happening more often than any of us really know? That's why we're also calling for having that transparency, having that register when a Triple Zero outage does happen that it has to be reported. So there is transparency, and every single Australian knows what's going on. We are approaching disaster season with bushfires and floods and people in their everyday life need to know that they have that security in making that very important call.

I don't know that bureaucracy solves that.

Webster

I just want to add to that, if I could. One of the issues that we are pushing for in The Nationals is a renewal, if you like, of the Universal Service Obligation, which currently is for landlines. We believe it ought to incorporate mobile towers and mobile access, particularly across the regions and the other solutions that we're inevitably going to need for our sparse, thin populations over large distances.

So there have to be tools in our toolbox, that at the moment are not available in Australia, and we believe it should be by legislation and we don't believe that the Labor government has the stomach to actually address this issue.

Journalist

So just to clarify, do you support in principle the custodian being put in place and what specific measures? Given we've already had review. What specific measures do you want to see the government put in place so that the triple zero system is set up for the so on?

McIntosh

Yeah, of course. And it was one of the recommendations of the Bean Review and we've asked the government to get on with that because the recommendations haven't all been implemented. But we want to make sure that whatever is isn’t place isn't just bureaucracy that actually works for Australians. That's why we're calling for that transparency and having that register within the legislation.

It says that ACMA, the custodian - ACMA reports back to the custodian every six months. Well, every six months, anything could happen. So that we're still going through this now, as I said, we only got it late last night and it is a technical document, technical bit of legislation and it has to be right for Australians.

It's all well and good, it's putting legislation through the House, but what's going to be the outcome? And why are you only doing it now? If you thought this was so important, so important to save lives, why didn't you do it a year and a half ago?

Journalist

Can I ask you, one of your colleagues has told Andrew Hastie in the Liberal Party room that he made the wrong move. Do you think he made the right move or the wrong move on Friday?

McIntosh

Well, this is going to establish every question you ask me about the party room from here until eternity.

Journalist

I’m actually asking for your views.

McIntosh

I'll always respect the party room. I've already said in regards to Andrew Hastie stepping aside, that he stepped aside on his principles around, if you're a shadow minister, you have to be a servant to our party rules and part of that is within shadow cabinet is following the directions of the leader and all being in line publicly. We can say what we like within shadow cabinet and in the party room.

And he very specifically said that as the Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, if he wasn't the overseer of the immigration policy, then he couldn't stay in that position.

And I said, I also publicly said that I support him on immigration when it comes to the pressures that our communities in outer metro areas, including my own, and I know this because I speak to the people in my community. We do have pressures on our infrastructure because of overpopulation. We do have pressures on our hospitals and that's not a lie. You go and speak to every single person up and down Penrith, on the High Street and across St Marys around the pressures, the very real pressures that people are facing in other metro areas.

Journalist

Is Andrew Hastie a team player?

McIntosh

Andrew Hastie has been a very strong colleague of mine since I got in, a supporter of mine and a very valued person within our party. And I've never had any issues of him not being a team player.

Journalist

So, he's still a team player now, like he's, he's on board the team, he's supporting the leaders, supporting the team, doing what's best for the team?

McIntosh

I think he clearly said, I'm not going to speak on behalf of Andrew, he clearly said he was stepping aside to give Sussan that clean air and just show respect for her authority.

Journalist

Do you think she's getting clean air?

McIntosh

I would hope so. And I'm very honest. I said this as well this is a dark and dismal place in the Liberal Party. The Australians people spoke very loud and clear at the election. We have a lot of work to do and we do need to focus on that policy development so we do have an offering that Australians want come the next election.

Journalist

Is there a risk raising these issues around immigration that you further alienate multicultural voters and lose more support?

McIntosh

I do not accept any form of racism and I think they are two very different issues. I have a very strong multicultural community and they love Australia. They are passionate Australians. It is a very different discussion around immigration and the pressures it does place, particularly on outer metro areas where population growth, just to look at the numbers, is high. We do have pressures, but I wouldn't take it even being in the same context talking about race and migration as people, people that respect and love our country and the pressures we feel.

Journalist

Gambling reform has stalled more than two years after the no field report, we're told that consultations are still underway. What is the Coalition's position on where we're at at the moment? Is the Coalition agitating in any form, in any way in this space?

McIntosh

Yet again, we're waiting on the Albanese Labor Government to deliver on a very important report. And speaking with stakeholders, they still don't know what's coming. And Australians are waiting for the Government's position. The Coalition had our position going into the last election, and we made it very clear what that was. Doesn't mean that that's going to be our position now. I'm working with stakeholders again and community groups to form our policy position, and people will know that. But it's up to the Government now. The question is why? Why are they halting? Why are they stalling on this? Everyone is agitating for it. I think everyone's had a policy position on this, including the independents and the Greens except for the government.

Thank you very much.

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