Optus sent two emails about its triple-0 outage to the wrong public service email address, where they sat undetected for more than a day.
The revelation came at an estimates hearing on Tuesday, where officials from the infrastructure department told senators the telco had used an address that was phased out a week before the outage.
The emails were sent at 2:45pm and 2:52pm on the day of the outage, on Thursday, September 18.
Optus said it had detected and then fixed a triple-0 outage that affected 10 calls, and that it would conduct welfare checks on those affected.
It later emerged that 600 calls had failed and three people had died. The media regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), is investigating whether Optus breached the law.
The Thursday emails were also copied to a staff member from the office of Communications Minister Anika Wells, and Optus made a follow-up call to the office.
The ABC has asked a spokesperson whether Ms Wells herself was made aware on Thursday but this has not been clarified. Ms Wells had already stated publicly that her office was notified on Thursday.
The spokesperson said the office “sought assurance that ACMA had been informed” and was told that they were.
For their part, department officials told senators they did not know about the outage at all on the Thursday, discovering the emails only the following afternoon when they “scoured” their inboxes because they were “surprised” that they had not been told.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the timeline raised questions about what actions Ms Wells took once her office became aware of the 10 failed calls.
“How many calls need to fail before the minister thinks it’s an issue?” she asked.
Emails switched a week before the outage
The departmental email address Optus used was correct until September 11, a week before the outage.
Optus and other telcos were told about the email switch two weeks earlier, on August 27, and were told at the time the old email would still be “temporarily monitored”.
Officials said Optus confirmed they knew about the updated email and had been using it for other outages.
Asked why there was no redundancy measure in place to check the old inbox, deputy secretary James Chisholm retorted that “the redundancy arrangements here are Optus complying with its obligations”.
In a heated and lengthy exchange with senators, Mr Chisholm insisted his department bore no responsibility for the outage and said it was his “opinion” that Optus had not met its legal obligations.
Labor senator Nita Green and departmental communications head James Chisholm defended the government’s approach to managing triple-0 and said the fault was with Optus. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
He said existing laws required telcos to check for triple-0 connectivity when they conducted “routine upgrades” such as the one that triggered this outage, and that calls had to be “camped” to other phone providers when outages occurred.
“The notifications are important, but not making triple-0 work properly is the issue here … That is the issue that ACMA is particularly focused on and that we are focused on,” he said.
Pressure over pace of reform to triple-0 system
The government has introduced legislation to establish a triple-0 “custodian” with stronger information-gathering powers than currently exist.
But it faces pressure over the slow implementation of other recommendations from an inquiry conducted after another Optus triple-0 failure in 2023, passed into law six months ago but only coming into effect in November.
Liberal senator Sarah Henderson, a former communications minister, said the change should have been brought in quicker.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the telco industry was “dragging its feet” on the inquiry’s recommendation to enact temporary “roaming” during outages such as natural disasters, and that the government should intervene to mandate this.
Labor senator Nita Green, who appeared on behalf of Ms Wells, defended the government’s approach and said the triple-0 laws were tough and appropriate.
The issue was raised in a bilateral meeting in Parliament House on Tuesday between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.
Singapore is a majority shareholder of Singtel, the parent company to Optus. Mr Wong offered his condolences to the affected families and told reporters he expected Singtel to “act responsibly [and] do whatever they can to co-operate with the investigation”.
“I’m sure they will do so and hopefully a conclusion will come through very soon … and steps can be taken expeditiously to rectify the mistakes,” he said.