AUSTRALIANS’ confidence in the one service that must never fail – Triple Zero – has been shaken by the recent Optus outage, according to Federal Member for Bowman Henry Pike.
Mr Pike said the incident highlighted critical failures in both the telecommunications sector and the Albanese Government’s handling of mobile network resilience.
“When someone dials 000, they don’t care about excuses or politics, they just need help to arrive,” he said.
“Here in the Redlands, we know this problem all too well. From Cyclone Alfred’s chaos to everyday dropouts, too many locals have been left stranded without reliable mobile coverage.”
Mr Pike said the Optus outage was not just a corporate failure, but a government one as well.
“Despite a similar outage in 2023 and repeated warnings, Labor sat on plans to create a Triple Zero watchdog for nearly a year,” he said.
“That reform could have forced faster fault reporting linked to three tragic deaths. Now, under pressure, they are rushing laws they should have passed long ago.”
Mr Pike’s comments come as Australia’s telecommunications companies prepare to face a surprise outage simulation to test their Triple Zero systems.
The drill was agreed to during a meeting between the Communications Minister Anika Wells and the heads of Optus, TPG and Telstra, coinciding with the introduction of legislation to create a “Triple Zero Custodian” – one of the key recommendations from a report handed down 18 months ago.
A telecommunications expert has suggested that such a custodian could help prevent extended outages like the recent Optus incident, which has been linked to several deaths.
Since being elected, Mr Pike said he had made it a key priority to fix poor mobile coverage across the Redlands.
With the help of thousands of residents, he has mapped every mobile blackspot and pushed telecommunications companies to act, securing 43 mobile upgrades in three years.
However, he said the Albanese Government had “dropped the ball” on improving regional and suburban connectivity.
“Labor has abandoned the Mobile Black Spot Program and left the Peri-Urban Mobile Program in limbo,” he said.
“The next rounds of funding are long overdue, with no timeline, no budget and no urgency.”
Following Cyclone Alfred, Mr Pike said he had worked with emergency managers and telcos to boost network resilience by pushing for more backup power, improved tower redundancy and faster disaster recovery.
He said the former Coalition’s Network Hardening Program, which had already delivered generators at Dunwich and Russell Island, must be expanded.
“I’ve urged the Minister to fund and extend this program to protect the whole community,” Mr Pike said.
He is calling on the Albanese Government to restore and fund the Mobile Black Spot and Peri-Urban Mobile Programs, expand the Network Hardening Program to cover all at-risk areas, and deliver a real, independent investigation into the Triple Zero system to prevent future failures.
“The safety of Australian families should not depend on which carrier they use or which suburb they live in,” he said.
“I’ll keep fighting to get results tower by tower, suburb by suburb. The Redlands deserves better, and I won’t stop until we get it.”
