More than 14 million triple-0 calls in 2025, but only 11.7 million answered, inquiry told

More than 14 million calls were placed to triple-0 in 2025, but only nine million were transferred to emergency services, an inquiry into the Optus outage has been told. The Environment and Communications References Committee is probing the September 18, 2025 Optus triple-0 outage, which was linked to multiple deaths. Triple-0 Custodian Clare Chapple told the inquiry, whose report is due next month, that 14.6 million calls were placed to triple-0 in 2025. Of those, 11.7 million were answered and nine million were transferred to emergency services. The difference – amounting to about three million – included pocket dials, as well as calls that may have failed. Exactly how many failed, the Department would have to provide on notice, after the hearing, Ms Chapple said. “So, really, what we don’t know is the difference,” Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said. Ms Chapple responded: “I don’t have with me right now the breakdown. “We do have a pretty good indication of the kinds of reasons why they drop off, but I don’t have that detailed breakdown.” The inquiry was told Telstra, which is contracted to handle triple-0 in Australia, was legally required to log how many calls fail to go through. Senator Hanson-Young told the inquiry the only data the committee had been given was an ACCAN survey reporting one in 10 calls did not connect. “I get that the big telecommunications companies won’t be happy to see these figures being bandied around. I get that,” she said. “But, in the absence of any other data, like what? What’s the committee meant to do with this?” The court was told a review by the Department was not probing whether Australian Communications and Media Authority, the independent authority, was fit for purpose. Ms Chapple review defended that review, which Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson suggested was an investigation of itself. “Ultimately, it will be the report that is provided to the minister,” she said. “This is a review of the settings as opposed to performance, and if something you know makes sense to change in the settings, I think we’d have no issue recommending that go forward of whether or not it should have been adopted at a different point of time.” Ms Chapple earlier said the review would also probe what technologies were coming onto the market in regard to the future of the triple-0 service. “Have we got a system that is fit for purpose now, but also in that future where there are new technologies and the current environment is written to preface voice so, you know, that is something that we need to look at,” she said. “Consumers should be able to access triple-0 with the technology that they’re using, and so I think that really sets a road map for us to be looking forward to what the future of triple-0 looks like. “We’re commencing that work. I think the regulatory and legislative settings are the right place to start, but we’re also doing a lot of work with our emergency services colleagues and international partners to understand how they’re coming at this.” Optus has previously indicated before the committee that it was making strides in addressing its systems, including its reporting culture. Ms Chapple said the Department’s job was to “monitor and improve the ecosystem”, which included Optus. “They are very public about what they’re progressing against … and certainly we will be asking them for how they’re progressing against that,” she said. “The short answer is yes, specifically for what they’ve committed to do. But also our very our core role is to make sure that each of the telcos are making those step changes.”