Telstra outage affecting calls to Triple Zero, brings regional Victoria, NSW train services to a halt

Opposition communications spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said she called Triple Zero to test network connectivity during the Telstra outage, while the telco warned Australians not to make unnecessary calls to its emergency line.

“Regarding Triple Zero, I’ve actually tested this myself. Now Telstra has made it very clear, please do not test Triple Zero. My understanding is that the Triple Zero network is intact and working. I made a few unsuccessful calls this morning because obviously I needed to know if Triple Zero was working and that appears to have been fixed,” he said.

“From what I understand, they are actually sending messages to people whose Triple Zero call failed, confirming if they need help.”

At a press conference in Darwin, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor sidestepped a question about whether his frontline man’s actions were irresponsible and instead blamed the government for Australians making such calls.

“I’m telling you what’s irresponsible at the moment is that the government hasn’t explained to Australians what’s going on here, so of course they’re going to investigate themselves what the situation is,” Taylor said.

“I mean, I was on my phone this morning, like a lot of Australians, trying to figure out what was going on, I couldn’t get any answers. And look, the government has been silent, they need to explain, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered.”