Greens question Telstra $2.3bn profit after equipment claim in national outage

Questions are swirling about the cause of a major outage that has reached triple 0 service, with Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young questioning how Telstra was able to make $2.3bn in profits last year but “didn’t keep its equipment up to date”.

The nationwide outage affected customers across Australia for around 12 hours last week in the latest high-profile failure of the country’s major telecommunications providers.

Two previous deaths were linked to an outage at Optus last year, which also affected triple-0 services.

Telstra CEO Vicki Brady, who was on holiday when the outage began, said the problem was caused by a software bug in Telstra’s scheduling systems.

A comprehensive investigation will be conducted by the telecommunications company.

In one post, Ms Brady said Telstra was “sorry we let you down”.

“We know how much people rely on us to stay connected, get work done, run their business and stay safe. It’s extremely frustrating that mobile services are not available and we are deeply sorry for the impact this is having on so many people,” he said.

Separately, the Senate will examine the incident through an investigation that will begin on Friday.

At this hearing, Senator Hanson-Young is expected to grill officials over reports that the problem was about Telstra “delaying upgrading a piece of equipment” that was due to be replaced years ago, which the South Australian Senator said would cost “about $20,000”.

“If this is indeed true, then the question arises: How can a company that made $2.3 billion in profits last year not keep its equipment up to date?” She said this in an episode of her podcast, The Sarah Hanson-Young Podcast, released Tuesday.

“(It) cost the entire company…potentially billions of dollars more due to massive failure.”

Senator Hanson-Young will chair Friday’s inquiry and said it was “about getting to the truth”.

“We need to start thinking about whether we should nationalize triple-0, which is built for the public good and not the business model of large telecommunications companies that can choose how much they want to invest in their systems,” he said.

“How is it possible that there is no legal obligation for these companies? This is political. It is a political choice to force these companies to put their consumers and public safety first rather than just their profits.”

Communications Minister Anika Wells vowed to hold Telstra accountable for the outage.

“It’s time for Telstra to face the music,” he said last week, noting that the telco enjoys “particular trust” from Australians.

“But that trust is really at stake today. It’s going to take a lot of time and a lot of work from Telstra to rebuild trust with Australians.”

On Sunday Education Minister Jason Clare said Telstra could face fines of up to $30 million.

But the incident was met with misinformation after One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce claimed, without evidence, that there could be a link to China.

Labor Party MPs withdrew this proposal.