Telstra took two and a half hours to tell the minister, as outage sparks Triple Zero test-call row

Telstra detected the network fault that cut mobiles, trains and some Triple Zero calls across the country at 4.30am on Wednesday — but did not directly inform Communications Minister Anika Wells's office until about 7am.

That is roughly two and a half hours.

In that window, Telstra put a notice on its website about 6.15am and gave comment to media about 6.35am, both before the minister's office was told directly.

Telstra defended the sequence, insisting government and other stakeholders were informed "very, very early". Chief financial officer Michael Ackland said it "may have been a couple of hours after 4.30 in the morning" but that the company worked to keep government informed "as quickly as we could".

The delay matters because timely notification was one of the central lessons of the Optus disaster.

When an Optus firewall upgrade blocked hundreds of emergency calls in September 2025 — a failure linked to three deaths — the company did not tell the Communications Minister about the fatalities for about 17 hours. The Triple Zero Custodian, now compiling a detailed timeline of Wednesday's outage, exists because of that failure.

Wells said the fallback held this time. So-called "camp-on" arrangements, which bounce a phone onto another available network for an emergency call, were "working" during the Telstra incident — a distinction she drew sharply from Optus. She called it "a very different kind of outage".

The welfare-check numbers firmed up through the day.

By 5pm Telstra had conducted 333 welfare checks on people whose Triple Zero calls dropped out, and could not reach 79 of them, who were referred to state police. Victoria Police was asked to follow up 32 callers, NSW 13, Tasmania three, and Western Australia one — which turned out to be someone who had not meant to call 000. South Australia had none. Wells suggested some dropped calls may have been cases where the person connected on a second attempt.

The outage also opened a political fight over the emergency line itself.

Shadow Communications Minister Sarah Henderson confirmed she had test-called Triple Zero on Wednesday morning, failing to connect twice, then reported her experience to Telstra. Deliberately making non-emergency calls to 000 is a Commonwealth offence carrying up to three years' jail — but Henderson rejected any suggestion she had broken the law, saying the offence covers "vexatious or hoax calls" and that she was "clearly concerned about the wellbeing and safety of Australians".

Acting Transport Minister Kristy McBain was scathing. "We teach our kids not to prank call Triple Zero," she said, calling it "absolutely outrageous" that Henderson made test calls while welfare checks were still running and the line was needed for genuine emergencies.

A second front opened over China.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce both raised the possibility the outage was linked to a Chinese missile test in the Pacific on Monday. Taylor said he could "understand" Australians questioning the timing. Joyce said he did not want to be "a conspiracy theorist" but pointed to China's "capacity" to affect such networks.

Wells accused both of "going off half-cocked" without evidence, and said Telstra had found nothing to suggest foul play. "When it comes to matters of national security, you shouldn't make stuff up," she said. She added that she had spoken to Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and was "assured by his answers".

Ackland said Telstra still did not know the root cause of the node failure. About 90 per cent of affected services were working again by the afternoon, with the rest expected back within hours.