Opposition leader Angus Taylor has defended his shadow communications minister Sarah Henderson’s decision to make unnecessary calls to the triple-zero emergency service during Telstra’s nationwide outage, saying she was “doing her job”. The controversy comes as South Australian police confirmed they are investigating a death that Liberal senator Kerrynne Liddle claimed was caused by the outage.
Speaking at a combative press conference on Thursday, Taylor accused the government of focusing on “political spin” rather than addressing the real issues. “The shadow minister had to do what she had to do, because of the failure of the minister – not for the first time – but for the second time,” he said. Criminal penalties can apply for non-urgent triple-zero calls, but Henderson maintains that her role placed her in a “unique position” to test the system.
Senator Liddle’s Facebook post claimed an elderly person died after being unable to connect to triple-zero during a life-or-death emergency. South Australia police initially said they were unaware of any such death, but later confirmed they had launched an investigation after speaking with Liddle and a family member. Police also revealed they had repeatedly tried to contact Liddle for information on Wednesday night, but her office initially declined to provide details.
Telstra acknowledged on Thursday that some customers continued to struggle with triple-zero calls due to a “secondary issue”, though the company said the occurrence had been reduced by 90%. The opposition has used the outage to criticise the government, while ministers including Tim Ayres labelled Henderson’s actions “utterly irresponsible”.
Liddle defended her decision to publicise the death, stating she prioritised the family’s privacy. “Reporting suggests Australians were still unable to get through to triple-zero overnight. That is completely unacceptable,” she said. The political fallout is expected to continue as the investigation proceeds.
