Telecommunications giant Optus has appointed Dr Kerry Schott AO to lead an independent investigation into last week’s catastrophic triple-zero failure, which has been linked to the deaths of three Australians.
The announcement, made this morning, aims to uncover the exact causes of the outage and scrutinize the processes and protocols followed on September 18.
The incident began just after 12:30 a.m. Thursday when Optus performed a firewall upgrade in South Australia. While normal calls were unaffected, around 600 emergency calls to 000 could not be completed. The disruption lasted 13 hours and impacted Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and New South Wales.
Under fire from federal authorities and regulators, Optus promised the review would be fully independent and transparent. Meanwhile, Australia’s telecommunications regulator confirmed it will investigate whether Optus’ Singapore-based parent company had invested adequately to prevent such a failure.
The outage has sparked outrage nationwide, raising urgent questions about the resilience of Australia’s emergency communications system. The deaths of three people who could not call for help have intensified calls for accountability and reform.
Dr Kerry Schott, known for her integrity and expertise in high-profile public inquiries, is expected to deliver preliminary findings within months. Her final report will recommend improvements to network infrastructure and emergency protocols to ensure such a disaster never happens again.
