Senate inquiry recommends nationalising Triple Zero functions

The Senate’s Environment and Communications References Committee has completed its inquiry into the 2025 Triple Zero service outage, yesterday releasing a report which includes 11 radical recommendations.

Chaired by Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, the inquiry was established in the wake of the 13-hour Optus outage of September 2025, which saw catastrophic failures in the Triple Zero system and was associated with multiple deaths. A number of other network outages have since affected Triple Zero, including the national Telstra outage on 8 July and the Optus voice outage on 11 September which impacted parts of Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

The committee found the failures examined during the inquiry have had real and tragic human impacts. With this in mind, it has produced a comprehensive report with 11 recommendations that highlight the need for an overhaul of the Triple Zero system, including the following:

• A review and modernisation of the Telecommunications Act and associated regulations in relation to Triple Zero;
• The establishment of a statutory authority to take over Emergency Call Person operations and nationalise Triple Zero functions;
• The introduction of a comprehensive minimum performance and reliability standard for all Australian telcos, with an automatic compensation scheme for those affected by network outages;
• The introduction of legislation to mandate domestic roaming for voice calls and text messages;
• The implementation of a reliable text-based service option for contacting Triple Zero in addition to voice calls; and
• An independent review of the ACMA’s role, powers, resourcing, technical capability and regulatory approach in relation to Triple Zero.
   

The Greens had previously said they would push for the addition of mandatory domestic roaming, strong performance and reliability standards, and an automatic compensation scheme to the Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligations Bill. With these measures now recommended by the report — a report which has been supported by both Labor and the Coalition as well as the Greens — it seems that the odds of their inclusion in the Bill have gone way up.

“After months of work, this report recommends essential measures the government must enact if they want to end Australia’s telco crisis,” said Hanson-Young, who acts as Greens spokesperson for Communications.

“Triple Zero is an essential service; it is often a matter of life or death for people. We can no longer allow it to be left to private companies to ensure the functioning of Triple Zero. Companies that put profits ahead of people should not be left to manage emergency services.

“Nationalising Triple Zero must be top of the government’s to-do list. Putting this emergency service back into public hands will ensure more accountability and more investment in protecting Australians.

“In 2026 telecommunications must be treated as the essential infrastructure it is. It is well past time that there are minimum performance and reliability standards imposed on telcos, just as there is for power companies.

“Compensation should be automatic for all customers affected by outages. Australians shouldn’t be put through the ringer by telcos when seeking compensation for a service they spend thousands of dollars a year on.

“Domestic roaming is already a reality around the world in countries like New Zealand, Canada and Europe. Australia must join these countries and ensure that we have a telecommunications network fit for the 21st century.

“ACMA have utterly failed in their role to regulate the telcos and shown they are more of a lap dog than a watch dog. Throughout the inquiry, the committee heard of repeated failure to conduct basic due diligence or act with the level of concern of urgency that regulating an emergency service like Triple Zero requires.

“An independent review of ACMA and their role in this saga is essential to help rebuild public trust and confidence in the Triple Zero system.”

Image credit: iStock.com/ymgerman