Once again, Optus is in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The latest Triple Zero outage, which reportedly contributed to the deaths of three people, including an eight-week-old baby, is not just a tragic failure of technology. It is a damning reflection on the culture, governance, and leadership of one of Australia’s largest telcos.
The Facts We Know
- A network “upgrade” by Optus caused emergency (000) calls to fail for about 600 customers across South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory.
- South Australian Police confirmed fatalities: an eight-week-old infant in Gawler West, a 68-year-old woman in Queenstown, plus a third person in Western Australia.
- Optus’ CEO Stephen Rue offered a public apology and has promised a full, transparent investigation.
- South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas condemned Optus’ conduct as “reprehensible incompetence,” furious that the telco prioritised a media strategy before notifying government officials directly.
Voices of Accountability: Key Quotes
Stephen Rue, CEO of Optus “I want to offer a sincere apology to all customers who could not connect to emergency services when they needed them most.”
Peter Malinauskas, Premier of South Australia “I have not witnessed such incompetence from an Australian corporation in respect to communication worse than this… I cannot believe that anyone in a senior level from Optus thought they should craft a media statement and conduct a press conference before advising the South Australian government that they had ascertained two deaths had occurred.”
Anika Wells, Communications Minister “This outage is unacceptable. Australians must have confidence that they can reach emergency services, and that confidence has been shaken yet again.”
What’s Broken: Culture, Systems, Governance
This outage exposes systemic failures:
- Failure in Core Obligations. Triple Zero access is the most basic promise of any telco. Optus has failed here before in the 2023 outage that left millions disconnected and drew a $12 million fine from the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
- PR Before People. The fury from Premier Malinauskas shows how badly Optus misread the situation. Leading with crafted media talking points instead of briefing government and emergency services is indefensible.
- Weak Governance. Regulators had already pointed to gaps in resilience and redundancy. The board’s role is to ensure those fixes are implemented. Clearly, oversight has been lacking.
- Cultural Issues. Optus’ handling suggests a culture of minimisation and damage control, not accountability and prevention. Lessons from previous disasters were not fully embedded.
Why the Board Must Be Losing Sleep
The consequences here are life-and-death. This is not just reputational damage; it’s about Australians dying when they couldn’t call for help.
- Lives lost: Apologies cannot bring back those who have died.
- Regulatory risk: Fines, investigations, and legal action are inevitable.
- Reputational damage: Trust has been shredded.
- Legal liability: Negligence could trigger lawsuits.
- Operational risk: Without a complete reset, further outages are inevitable.
What the Board Must Do
- Commission an independent inquiry with public reporting.
- Conduct a full technical and risk audit, with mandatory stress-testing.
- Reset crisis communication protocols to ensure authorities are notified immediately.
- Enforce accountability for leadership failures.
- Drive a cultural reset that puts safety and reliability before PR optics.
Should Optus Still Manage Triple Zero?
Australians have to ask: Should a company with such repeated failures be trusted with a service as critical as Triple Zero? If Optus cannot guarantee reliability, then the government must consider whether the responsibility should remain in its hands.
Conclusion
This is not just another corporate misstep. It is a national tragedy. The Optus board can no longer hide behind platitudes. They must show accountability, transparency, and urgency. Anything less will confirm what many Australians already fear: that Optus is not fit to be the custodian of services where lives are at stake.
Source Material
The Age / SMH — “Baby boy and woman, 68, among those who died during Optus Triple Zero outage” (Ashleigh McMillan & David Swan, 20 Sept 2025)
An eight-week-old South Australian boy is one of the three people who died during the Triple Zero network outage that occurred due to a network upgrade by Optus on Thursday. The failure affected about 600 customers in South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, where calls to the emergency number failed. Two of the deaths occurred in South Australia and one was in Western Australia. South Australia Police confirmed in a statement those who died included an eight-week-old boy from Gawler West and a 68-year-old woman from the Adelaide suburb of Queenstown. “The circumstances of each death, including any impact of the outage, are being investigated and a report will be prepared for the state coroner in each case,” the statement said. Optus chief executive Stephen Rue on Friday said the outage was “completely unacceptable” and a thorough investigation would occur. “I want to offer a sincere apology to all customers who could not connect to emergency services when they needed them most, and I offer my most sincere and heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of the people who passed away,” he said. South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas: “I have not witnessed such incompetence from an Australian corporation in respect to communication worse than this… I cannot believe that anyone in a senior level from Optus thought they should craft a media statement and conduct a press conference before advising the South Australian government that they had ascertained two deaths had occurred.”
Reuters — “Three dead in Australia after Optus glitch disrupts emergency calls” (19 Sept 2025)
“I am so sorry for your loss. What has happened is completely unacceptable. We have let you down,” said CEO Stephen Rue. The outage hit 600 customers during an upgrade and prevented calls to emergency services.
The Guardian — “Three people died when Optus network upgrade affected triple zero calls, CEO confirms” (19 Sept 2025)
Communications Minister Anika Wells: “This outage is unacceptable. Australians must have confidence that they can reach emergency services, and that confidence has been shaken yet again.”
News.com.au — “Detail in Optus horror fail sparks uproar” (20 Sept 2025)
The Premier accused Optus of attempting to bury the news with a late Friday release and prioritising PR optics over transparency.
