It will now also investigate the Telstra outage and executives from the telco will be required to give evidence on Friday.<\/p>\n
A Telstra spokesman told the ABC that it would participate with the inquiry.<\/p>\n
Grandmother’s 32-hour bus ‘adventure’ home<\/a><\/p>\n A bus trip that should have taken only 13 hours turned into a 32-hour interstate marathon for Torquay grandmother Rita Busbridge thanks to this week’s Telstra outage.<\/p>\n Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who is the chair of the Environment and Communications References Committee, said she expected Telstra bosses to come with answers.<\/p>\n “Australians are sick and tired of the bad mobile phone service and this week’s chaos exposed how vulnerable we all are when things go wrong,” she said.<\/p>\n “The public deserves transparency and accountability in light of this massive failure.”<\/p>\n The appearance of Telstra bosses at the Senate inquiry has been welcomed by the government.<\/p>\n Vicky Brady issued an apology to users on Friday, in her first public sighting since the outage. \u00a0 (ABC News)<\/p>\n Frontbencher Jason Clare, who fronted the media today, said the outage should never have happened.<\/p>\n “Telstra has let Australians down, people could have lost their lives,” he said.<\/p>\n CEO Vicki Brady fronted the media for the first time yesterday, after she cut her overseas holiday short, and apologised to Telstra customers<\/a> and Australians for the outage.<\/p>\n Multiple inquiries into Telstra outage<\/p>\n The Senate inquiry is just one of several that will look into the Telstra outage.<\/p>\n The telco is running an internal investigation, while the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has also launched its own inquiry.<\/p>\n ACMA’s deputy chair Adam Suckling said Telstra had “let the country down”.<\/p>\n “We are investigating into whether Telstra has complied with its legal and regulatory obligations under the law, including a range of new measures that the government introduced to beef up the Triple Zero system,” he said on Friday.<\/p>\n A ‘well-known’ risk caused Telstra’s outage. Why did it get caught out?<\/a><\/p>\n Telstra faces an outage investigation as an expert says legal gaps may let the telco off the hook.<\/p>\n “Under those new powers, Telstra can face civil penalties of up to $30 million. So, we will be working very hard to hold them to account.”<\/p>\n The Triple Zero Custodian, which was established by the federal government after the Optus outage, will also conduct a post-incident review.<\/p>\n The custodian’s role is to work with government departments, emergency services and telcos to ensure the Triple Zero network is operating effectively.<\/p>\n A number of investigations were launched after the Optus outage and while some have released findings,<\/a> others are yet to report back, including the inquiry by ACMA.<\/p>\n Adam Suckling (left) says Telstra has “let the country down”. (ABC News: Simon Beardsell\u00a0)<\/p>\n Further protections for customers<\/p>\n The Telstra incident has led to further questions about what more the government could do to protect customers from future outages.<\/p>\n Senator Hanson-Young said tougher regulations were needed.<\/p>\n “There’s no right to compensation for customers or penalties on the companies for failed mobile phone service,” she said.<\/p>\n “We need stronger laws, stronger enforcement and stronger penalties.”<\/p>\n Anika Wells has said Telstra’s feet will be held to the fire over the outage.\u00a0 (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)<\/p>\n Communications Minister Anika Wells this week returned from holidays to monitor the situation and has repeatedly referred to changes the government made following the Optus outage.<\/p>\n “I would make the point we have done a lot as a government since what happened in September \u2014 we legislated the Triple Zero Custodian, we increased the fines to $30 million,” she said.<\/p>\n “We now have another piece of legislation before parliament right now, which would give the minister new powers to mandate mobile minimum standards across the country.”<\/p>\n The higher fine of $30 million applies only to Triple Zero-related failures.<\/p>\n![\"Vicky](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783797440_592_5b4a0eb20036b978f8e7d089d2f37842.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Adam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/d9d6d5c951910f0b5242b42d93092824.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Anika](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/9dd040cfedcabe3d703eb11b472b1faf.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n