Optus CEO Stephen Rue has told a Senate inquiry he cannot guarantee another network outage will not occur, as the company faces scrutiny over a September 2023 failure that prevented 605 customers from reaching Triple Zero emergency services. The outage, which lasted 14 hours, has been linked to several deaths.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young delivered a scathing assessment of Optus management, stating the evidence revealed 'cultural problems within Optus as a company.' She said the telco had 'no proper risk management system' at the time, and existing processes were 'either ignored or people just didn't even know about them.'
Dr. Kerry Schott, who led the review into the outage, described listening to calls from families who tried to alert Optus about the Triple Zero failure. She said call centre staff had not been informed by upper management that an outage was occurring, leading to mishandling of the crisis.
The inquiry is examining the cause of the outage, the performance of emergency 'camp-on' arrangements, and the role of the federal government in safeguarding the Triple Zero system. A report titled 'The Triple Zero Outage At Optus: 18 September 2023' has been published, detailing numerous errors by Optus.
Senator Hanson-Young called for an overhaul of the entire Triple Zero system, saying it is 'not fit for purpose' and 'failing Australians.' She argued that for-profit telecommunications companies are putting lives at risk by not prioritizing safety over profit.
