Anika Wells: Communications Minister’s office confirms MP not invited to front Optus triple-zero inquiry

Communications Minister Anika Wells hasn’t received a formal invitation to front an inquiry examining the Optus triple-zero failure last month despite a threat from the committee’s chair. Committee chair and Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young had told a party room meeting on Tuesday that they intended to invite Ms Wells to front a hearing. However, the minister’s office on Wednesday confirmed to The West Australian that she’s yet to receive one. Three people who died during the Optus triple-0 outage in September, including two people in WA and one in South Australia. Senator Hanson-Young had acknowledged that while the committee couldn’t compel Ms Wells to appear because she’s a member of the House of Representatives, she could accept an invitation. Shadow Communications Minister Melissa McIntosh accused the minister of “not giving clear answers” and urged her to front the inquiry. “There is a role that the minister has in all of this… and she’s not giving clear answers, including when she found out about the outage,” Ms McIntosh told reporters on Wednesday. “So, I think the minister should be fronting that inquiry and making it clear to the Australian people, not only what occurred with this outage, but giving people confidence that this is not going to happen again.” Ms Wells had spruiked her handling of the fiasco earlier on Wednesday during an ABC Radio interview, saying she’d already answered “72 questions” on the issue “in both the House of Representatives and in press conferences”. She later told ABC News Afternoon Briefing she expected Optus to face more punitive measures from the regulator ACMA but didn’t directly answer when asked if Optus boss Stephen Rue should resign or if she had confidence in him. “It took Optus more than a year to replace the previous CEO when she had to resign over the previous Optus outage,” Ms Wells said. “How does that help anyone assure themselves of the Triple Zero system? “It is not a question for me to decide whether or not he should go, but as the steward of the telco system, my question is, if he is not going to do it, who is going to do it?” Mr Rue had been grilled in a three-hour session with the Senate Committee earlier this week , where he claimed to be “deeply sorry” for the outage. Other executives from major telcos are also expected to be called before their inquiry, with Senator Hanson-Young revealing their intention to contact two Australian board members of Singtel, the Singaporean-owned parent company of Optus. It comes as Optus was hit with another outage on Wednesday, which it said may impact triple-0 calls within areas of the Hunter Valley region and surrounds as of 3pm AEDT. “Optus technicians are onsite working to restore services as quickly as possible. We apologise to impacted customers and will continue to provide regular updates.” It said it was “responding to a fibre break” which has been impacting customers in Port Stephens, Maitland and other surrounding areas.