Opposition communications spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said she called Triple Zero to test network connectivity during the Telstra outage while the telco was urging Australians not to make unnecessary calls to the emergency line.
“In relation to Triple Zero, I actually tested it myself. Now Telstra is making very clear, please do not test Triple Zero. The Triple Zero network, I understand, is sound, is working. I had a couple of failed calls this morning, because obviously I needed to know if Triple Zero was working, and that appears to be rectified,” she told Sky News.
“They are in fact sending out messages to people, I understand, who have had a failed Triple Zero call, confirming whether they need help or not.”
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor dodged a question over whether the actions of his frontbencher was irresponsible during a press conference in Darwin, instead blaming the government for Australians making such calls.
“I tell you what’s irresponsible at the moment is that the government has not explained to Australians what’s going on here, so of course they’re going to investigate for themselves as to what the situation is,” Taylor said.
“I mean I, like so many Australians this morning, was on my phone trying to work out what was going on, with no answers. And look, the government has been silent, they need to come clean, there are many questions that need to be answered.”
