The inquiry, prompted by a September 2023 Optus network failure that knocked out more than 450 emergency calls for 13 hours and was linked to two deaths, concluded that the current reliance on a single carrier jeopardises public safety.
It also cited a July 2024 incident in which Telstra experienced two separate outages, again preventing hundreds of 000 calls from connecting and disrupting daily life for millions across the country.
Telstra and its predecessors have operated the national 000 call centre since 1961 under a contract that runs until 2032. The committee’s report urges that this contract be re‑structured and that responsibility for the service be handed over to an independent body to ensure continuity and accountability.
In addition to the call‑centre overhaul, the committee recommended mandating domestic mobile roaming for voice calls and text messages, forcing telecom operators to share network capacity in emergencies.
The recommendations have sparked political push‑back. Both Labor and Coalition senators on the committee opposed an independent review of the communications regulator and the mandatory roaming proposal. The Coalition favours an investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, while opposition spokeswoman Sarah Henderson called for a broader independent review of the telecommunications sector and faster rollout of text‑message alerts for 000 calls.
Consumer watchdogs warned in 2017 that compulsory roaming could raise prices in regional areas, though New Zealand and Canada have implemented similar reforms and claim they improved competition and access.
The series of outages has eroded public confidence in the telecom sector’s ability to safeguard life‑critical communications, prompting calls for tested contingency plans, rapid incident response and a move away from reliance on a single private operator.
If adopted, the Senate’s proposals would mark the first major restructuring of Australia’s emergency‑call infrastructure in more than six decades, aiming to protect the economy and public safety by ensuring that essential services can operate through independent, resilient systems.