Telstra’s chief executive Vicki Brady is expected to face questions about the company’s network failure after returning from overseas leave, as scrutiny of the telco’s performance and executive pay intensifies. The widespread outage, caused by an early morning software glitch that controls timers, disrupted transport, businesses, emergency services, and healthcare across Australia. There are also fears of a possible fatality in South Australia, which is under investigation by police.
Public anger and calls for accountability
Former deputy prime minister Wayne Swan criticized Telstra’s corporate leadership, calling for financial penalties. “There’s no question the bonuses of all the executives will be on the line,” he told Nine’s Today program. “I’m sure the public will want to see a fair bit of accountability.” Telstra sacked more than 100 people and merged two of its biggest technology divisions in May, but chief finance officer Michael Ackland dismissed links to the network’s systems on Thursday.
Government and political reactions
Foreign Minister Penny Wong blamed the telco for failing to shore up its systems, which had a knock-on effect on critical infrastructure. “Everyone would agree that Telstra’s performance through this has not been where the community expect it to be... when it comes, particularly to the emergency network,” she told Nine’s Today on Friday. “I want to make it very clear that it’s not acceptable that people can’t get through on the triple zero line.” When asked if bonuses for executives and directors needed to be reviewed, the minister repeated her assertion that the public deserved better from the telco.
Outage resolution and welfare checks
The outage was largely resolved by late Wednesday, and a solution for a separate “secondary issue” that prevented some users from making triple-zero calls was in place by Thursday afternoon. Communications Minister Anika Wells said on Thursday night that the overwhelming majority of the 639 welfare checks conducted by Telstra had taken place with no adverse outcomes reported. However, South Australian Liberal Senator Kerrynne Liddle said her office received a report that an elderly woman had died during Wednesday’s outage. South Australia Police said it had repeatedly attempted to contact Senator Liddle for information regarding the report without success. The force later confirmed an individual died at a regional hospital on Wednesday, but police had not been notified of the death, and an investigation was launched into the circumstances.
Third major outage in less than a year
This is the third major national outage in less than a year for the $56 billion giant, which powers about 25 million Australian mobile services. The repeated failures have raised questions about the reliability of Telstra’s network and the accountability of its leadership.
