A 13-hour Triple-Zero outage in the network of Australia’s second-largest telecommunications company Optus has left at least four people dead in two states, including a baby.
The eight-week-old boy died in Gawler West, north of Adelaide, while a woman, 68, died in the Adelaide suburb of Queenstown, and two men aged 49 and 74 died in the Perth area after the network went down between 12.30am and 1.30pm on Thursday, despite the company being told at 9am.
The outage, which Optus said was caused by a firewall update during a routine network upgrade, has raised questions about why it took so long to fix and whether the telco giant was prioritising profits over the welfare of Australians.
Optus outsources backend IT work to India, but it has not been revealed whether foreign workers were responsible for the botched update and deadly outage, which was suddenly announced at 5.30pm on Friday without state premiers being informed.
Former NSW Premier and Covid lockdown and vaccine mandates architect turned Optus executive Gladys Berejiklian, who earns a 7-figure salary, refused to comment on the crisis, send a message to the victims, or explain the surprise press conference to The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, leaving CEO Stephen Rue to address the outage.
“I have asked for a full review into the circumstances relating to the failed network upgrade and impact on the Triple Zero network, Mr Rue said.
“I will also be working with my board and executive team to enable a full independent review of the entire incident including all the impacts and related information. This includes working closely with relevant agencies to establish the full facts.”
Mr Rue admitted Optus did not handle the 9am calls “as would be expected” and that the company had “no alarms to alert us”.
“We became aware of the severity of the incident when a customer contacted us directly at around 1.30pm on Thursday. We were further notified by South Australian police shortly thereafter,” he said.
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas and Western Australian Premier Roger Cook both blasted Optus, which was fined $12 million for a similar outage in 2023.
“South Australian police didn’t know. No one in SAS or ambulance service knew; my office didn’t know. But then they conducted a press conference,” Mr Malinauskas said.
“I have not witnessed such incompetence from an Australian corporation in respect to communications worse than this.”
Greens MP Sarah Hanson-Young said new laws were needed to bring telecommunication companies into line.
“For too long, Optus has put profits over safety and it has now cost people’s lives. It’s simply not good enough,” she said.
“Clearly the $12 million fine last time wasn’t enough to send the message to Optus that safety must come first.”
Optus regularly promotes woke causes on its social media pages, including “transgenderism”, and has a float in Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
Header image: Left, an Optus store in Sydney. Right, Gladys Berejiklian (Facebook).
