A shocking revelation has emerged from a Senate committee hearing, shedding light on the panic that unfolded at an offshore Optus call center during a critical emergency situation.
On September 18 last year, a total of 605 Optus customers desperately tried to reach Triple Zero (000) emergency services for 14 hours straight. However, most of these callers encountered only silence on the other end of the line.
Kerry Schott AO, an experienced executive tasked with investigating the incident, appeared before the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee. The hearing's focus included the cause of the outage, the performance of emergency protocols, and the role of the Australian government in ensuring the integrity and resilience of the Triple Zero system.
The report, titled "The Triple Zero Outage at Optus: 18 September 2025," has been published and reveals a series of errors made by Optus. These errors occurred during the network upgrade implementation and in the risk management procedures the telco had in place to address the issue.
Dr. Schott described the calls made by families trying to reach Triple Zero as "particularly distressing." These families had managed to get through to Triple Zero on other lines but were calling the offshore Optus center to alert them of the problem. Despite accurately describing the issue, they were met with technical discussions instead of the emergency response they deserved.
The committee learned that the lack of awareness among call center staff about the unfolding crisis was a key factor in its escalation. Dr. Schott explained that upper management had not informed the call center staff about the outage, leading them to treat the calls as routine troubleshooting rather than an emergency.
This lack of communication resulted in call center staff not referring these critical calls upward. It was only after learning about fatalities that the call center finally escalated the issue, and even then, the staff was in a state of extreme distress.
Dr. Schott revealed that the Optus offshore call center was unaware of the "network" outage, which she attributed to communication problems between the call center and the wider Optus organization. The network took a long time to inform the call center due to difficulties in monitoring incoming calls and their locations.
In a damning statement, Dr. Schott told Senators that Optus's risk management at the time was inadequate, and a culture of carelessness existed. However, she noted that Optus staff has since been working hard to rectify the problem.
Optus CEO Stephen Rue, brought in by parent company Singtel to reform the company, stated that Optus is undergoing significant changes. He highlighted new onshore call center roles, improved escalation processes, enhanced real-time monitoring of Triple Zero performance, and a new automated welfare check process during outages impacting Triple Zero.
Rue also mentioned substantial changes to executive leadership, including in network security, technology, legal, compliance, and risk management. He emphasized that there is more work to be done to strengthen the company's culture as part of their long-term transformation program.
This incident serves as a stark reminder of the importance of effective communication and emergency response systems, especially in critical situations where lives are at stake.
