‘Compulsory escalation process’ for reports of triple zero failures to be introduced, Optus CEO says
Rue says he has confirmed that two customers contacted an Optus call centre to report they could not access the triple zero emergency line. The company is reviewing its call logs, and have so far found three other calls about an inability to access the emergency service network.
At the time of these calls, there were no red flags for the contact centre to alert them to any live issues. This is, clearly, not good enough and we are implementing a new compulsory escalation process following any customer reports of triple zero failures through our customer call centre.
Rue says Optus will have technical teams will be monitoring triple zero call volumes and failure rates, state by state and will provide further updates as new information comes in.
The outage affected South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory.
Updated at 01.31 EDT
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What we learned, 21 September 2025
With that we’re wrapping up the blog. Before we go, here are the major stories from Sunday:
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has arrived in New York ahead of a string of diplomatic meetings with world leaders, possibly including Donald Trump;
The federal emergency services minister, Kristy McBain, has blasted Optus outage as “absolutely disgraceful”;
A baby boy has died and a young woman seriously injured after a ute crashed into a parked car on the side of a busy freeway;
The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, has accused the Nationals of betraying farmers for abandoning net zero;
Bowen has thrown his support behind Australian recognition of Palestinian statehood saying that he believes “Israel will be truly free and secure when Palestine is”
Optus CEO Stephen Rue addressed outrage over the telco’s outage that is thought to have contributed to the deaths of at three people nationwide;
South Australian police say the Optus outage was not involved in the death of an eight-year-old boy, but are still investigating its role in the death of a 68-year-old woman.
We’ll pick things up again tomorrow.
ShareTeen arrested after pursuit in Sydney’s west
A teenage boy has been arrested after a pursuit in Sydney’s west yesterday.
In a statement, NSW police said:
About 9.15pm on Saturday 20 September 2025, officers attached to Cumberland Highway Patrol attempted to stop a vehicle – believed to be stolen – travelling on Reservoir Road, Blacktown.
When the vehicle allegedly failed to stop as directed, a pursuit was initiated.
The vehicle allegedly travelled along the M4 Motorway towards Prospect and continued through to James Street, Leichhardt, where it will be alleged the vehicle crashed into a parked car.
Police attempted to remove the driver; however, an officer discharged their firearm at the vehicle, and another discharged a Taser, when the vehicle’s door allegedly hit and injured a police officer.
The driver allegedly crashed into two parked cars and rammed three police vehicles before driving away.
A 27-year-old male officer suffered a minor head injury and was taken to hospital for further treatment. He has since been discharged.
A short time later, the vehicle was located abandoned on a driveway on Crystal Street, Petersham.
Following inquiries, about 2pm today (Sunday 21 September 2025), detectives attached to Leichhardt Police Area Command – with assistance of the Public Order and Riot Squad – arrested a 17-year-old boy at a home on George Street, Erskineville.
He was taken to Newtown Police Station and is assisting with inquiries.
Updated at 01.55 EDT
Independent investigation ordered into triple-zero outage, Optus CEO says
Taking questions now, Stephen Rue says an independent investigation will be undertaken into what happened. In response to another (later) question, Rue said the Optus board is still working through who will oversee this independent review.
Rue says call volumes at the time of the outage “looked normal” and there was “no indication of a general network issue”. Even though they excluded triple zero calls, the failure to connect these calls was not detected. He says the company is now looking at all triple zero calls.
Rue is asked whether he had listened to the calls himself; he said he has not because he is undertaking a “multiplicity” of tasks, but a “very senior member” of the company has listened to the calls and reviewed them.
Asked whether the incident represents a “fundamental problem with the architecture of the Optus network”, Rue says the issue appears to have been a failure of process and that an investigation will determine what occurred.
Updated at 01.47 EDT
Additional customers also affected by triple-zero outage in NSW
Rue says he has been made aware there were two additional callers from New South Wales who were unable to connect to emergency services.
He says the two callers were based near the South Australian border and their calls connected to South Australian towers.
Welfare checks on these calls have been progressed by Optus and the New South Wales police and we are not aware of any further issues.
Rue also outlines how a welfare check process works: he says that Optus will attempt to call affected households two times. When they are unable to make contact, police step in to make additional contact attempts.
It was during these further inquiries that the new information became known.
Updated at 01.34 EDT
‘Compulsory escalation process’ for reports of triple zero failures to be introduced, Optus CEO says
Rue says he has confirmed that two customers contacted an Optus call centre to report they could not access the triple zero emergency line. The company is reviewing its call logs, and have so far found three other calls about an inability to access the emergency service network.
At the time of these calls, there were no red flags for the contact centre to alert them to any live issues. This is, clearly, not good enough and we are implementing a new compulsory escalation process following any customer reports of triple zero failures through our customer call centre.
Rue says Optus will have technical teams will be monitoring triple zero call volumes and failure rates, state by state and will provide further updates as new information comes in.
The outage affected South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory.
Updated at 01.31 EDT
Optus CEO repeats apology for network failing triple-zero callers ‘in a time of need’
Early investigations show that established processes were not involved when delivering an upgrade to Optus infrastructure that led to an outage that may have cost at least three people their lives.
The Optus CEO, Stephen Rue, is speaking to reporters at a press conference where he has reiterated a personal apology for the infrastructure failure that led to a network outage leaving people unable to reach emergency services “in a time of need”.
I would like to reiterate how sorry I am about the very sad loss of the lives of four people who could not reach emergency services in a time of need. Further, I acknowledge that the connection failures created immense additional distress with some of our other customers who attempted to contact the triple zero service on Thursday and the news has understandably created concern for the wider community who rightly want to know that when they need this service, it would be available to them.
I apologise to everyone impacted.
Rue says he has put any further work on the network on hold “until we have a broader understanding of the events that have occurred, so that we can introduce greater monitoring, testing and compliance and reviews of our change process”.
Updated at 01.30 EDT
The Optus CEO, Stephen Rue, is about to speak at a press conference regarding the outage that led to people across the country being unable to access the emergency network and may have been a contributing factor in three deaths.
A video link for the press conference is now live and it appears things will get under way shortly.
Updated at 01.11 EDT
WA police to address media over Optus outage
Western Australian police will speak to media regarding the Optus outage that limited calls to the triple zero emergency services network.
Cmdr Jodie Pearson from the Metropolitan Regional Office will hold a press conference at 2pm local time in Perth on Sunday, or 4pm on the east coast.
We will bring you the latest as it happens.
Updated at 01.06 EDT
Weekend auctions climb again
Auction activity has surged this weekend with 2,675 auctions to be held.
This is a climb on the 2,402 held last week but just under the 2,781 auctions that occurred at the same time last year.
Based on results collected so far, CoreLogic’s summary found that the preliminary clearance rate was 77.9% across the country, which is up on the 75% preliminary rate recorded last week but above the 69% actual rate on final numbers and the 60.7% at the same time last year.
Across the capital cities:
Sydney: 718 of 925 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 77.9%
Melbourne: 1008 of 1322 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 78.6%
Brisbane: 125 0f 174 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 65.6%
Adelaide: 76 of 135 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 85.5%
Canberra: 75 of 105 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 81.3%
Tasmania: Three auctions to be held.
Perth: Six of eleven auctions held.
Updated at 00.46 EDT
Inflation fading but rate cut doubtful at least for now
The RBA governor, Michele Bullock, will face questions from federal MPs on the timing of interest rate decisions ahead of key economic data releases.
Mortgage holders may soon get a better idea of when they can expect another interest rate cut as the Reserve Bank boss defends the timing of its moves.
The appearance will be her first at a parliamentary hearing since the RBA board started cutting rates in February and the first since the federal election in May.
It comes as the Australian Bureau of Statistics prepares to release August inflation data on Wednesday, giving the central bank some indication of Australia’s economic temperature.
Inflation has been falling steadily since peaking in late 2022 and the Reserve Bank predicts consumer price increases will stay around the middle of its 2% to 3%cent target band for the next few years.
Bullock will also face questions about her push to end surcharges on card payments, which the central bank argues are outdated and inefficient.
– AAP
Updated at 00.45 EDT
Optus outage appears not to have played a role in death of eight-year-old
South Australian police say that the family of an eight-year-old boy who died was affected by the Optus outage, but the lack of service does not appear to have contributed to his death.
Police said they would not normally comment on the individual circumstances but the public interest in this specific case “requires this action”.
In a statement released on Sunday, police said that the grandmother of the eight-year-old told investigating police that she attempted to call triple zero using her mobile phone when she was alerted to the fact the child was not breathing.
Her call did not connect but she immediately used another mobile phone in the house and was successfully connected to triple zero.
Police say preliminary investigations suggest the child’s death was not due to any delay in an emergency response, despite the initial fail to contact authorities.
They say they are still investigating whether the outage contributed to the death of a 68-year-old woman from Queenstown, saying the situation is “more complex”.
Updated at 00.07 EDT
Australian singer pulls out of ‘Russian Eurovision’ citing political pressure
An Australian-born singer representing the United States in a Russian song contest has pulled out under political pressure from the Australian government, according to reports.
Vasiliki Karagiorgos is an Australian singer who was born in Darwin to Greek parents and moved to the US in the 2010s before returning to Australia in 2022. Known by her professional name Vassy, her song We Are Young hit number one on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart.
The ABC reports that Vassy was expected to represent the US at the Intervision song contest, a Soviet-era competition that was revived in a presidential decree from Russian president Vladimir Putin after Russia was banned from Eurovision after its invasion of Ukraine.
In a statement provided to the ABC, Vassy said she was “still in shock” but would not comment further until she had spoken with the Australian government.
Updated at 23.51 EDT
Manhunt under way after shots fired, police cars rammed in western Sydney
A manhunt is under way after a car rammed three police cars during a police pursuit, with one officer firing his weapon in an attempt to stop the driver.
A suspected stolen car has rammed police cars, sent one officer to hospital and saw multiple shots fired in a dramatic late-night police pursuit.
The chase began about 9.15pm on Saturday when NSW police tried to stop a suspected stolen Citroën sedan in Blacktown, in Sydney’s west.
When the car failed to stop, police followed it through multiple suburbs to Leichhardt where it crashed into two parked cars, rammed three police vehicles and drove towards police.
During the standoff between the occupants and police, the vehicle was reversed into a 27-year-old officer, causing him to fall and hit his head.
He was taken to hospital for concussion and has since been released.
Acting Supt Adam Solah said one officer fired their weapon at the car and another discharged a taser, but the driver was still able to flee the scene.
A short time later, police found the abandoned vehicle in a driveway in Petersham and a search is under way for the suspected offenders.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, acting Supt Solah described the actions of the driver as reckless, fearless and extremely dangerous”.
We’re very lucky that no one was killed, including police.
The police were out there on the street trying to arrest these two balaclava wearing offenders and a number of people were all run over.
– AAP
Updated at 23.51 EDT
Albanese arrives in New York
A few snaps of the PM landing in the US ahead of a big week of tightrope diplomacy.
Anthony Albanese arrives at John F Kennedy airport in New York. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPAlbanese and his partner Jodie Haydon are welcomed by Australian officials on arrival. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPAlbanese is in the US for the UN general assembly and a major conference on Israel and Palestine. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPShare
Updated at 23.11 EDT
Baby dies after horror crash on side of busy Queensland freeway
A baby boy has died and a young woman is seriously injured after a ute crashed into a car parked on the side of a busy freeway.
Queensland police are investigating the fatal crash between a silver four-wheel-drive that was parked on the side of the northbound M1, when it was struck by a grey ute in the early hours of Sunday.
Police say the baby boy, who was in the parked four-wheel-drive, was rushed to the Gold Coast university hospital, but died a short time later.
The driver of the four-wheel-drive, a 24-year-old Ormeau Hills woman, was also taken to hospital in a serious condition.
The driver of the ute, a 51-year-old Loganlea man, sustained minor injuries.
– AAP
Updated at 23.14 EDT
Optus CEO to speak to media about network outage
The Optus CEO, Stephen Rue, is expected to provide an update to media at 3pm AEST about his networks outage and the failure to connect triple-zero calls.
We will bring you the latest as it happens.
Stephen Rue, Optus CEO. Photograph: Hollie Adams/ReutersShare
Updated at 23.14 EDT