Second potential death linked to Samsung phone revealed at Senate inquiry

“Everyone in the department and the department was very relieved to learn that there were actually no deaths,” Grunhard said.

But that information was false and on Tuesday Grunhard admitted the department never verified TPG’s claim with NSW Ambulance or communications regulator the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).

Telstra called Grunhard ahead of the hearing but said it was “concerned they had a different understanding” on Monday night – more than two months after the customer’s death.

“September, October, November – 2 1/2 months away – and you’re saying that someone bothered to pick up the phone just because the telecommunications companies are conducting this investigation today,” Hanson-Young said.

Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady gave evidence on Tuesday that NSW Ambulance sent Telstra an email at 9.30am on September 24 informing it that “the patient had passed away” after failing to reach Triple Zero.

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Telstra immediately notified the department. Telstra executive Cecelia Burgman confirmed she had called the first deputy secretary at 11.01am and said she had already spoken to TPG.

But Brady admitted Telstra failed to raise the issue at a meeting with minister Wells on 20 October, nearly a month later. Brady said Telstra understood the department and ACMA was investigating. “I don’t think it’s our responsibility,” he said.

Berroeta told the inquest he only learned of the death through a tip from a Telstra employee on Monday.

“This information was never disclosed [to] us,” Berroeta said.

The conflicting statements led Hanson-Young to accuse the industry of concealment: “There is another investigation underway into Triple Zero and Optus, and at this point no one in the industry wanted to ‘come clean and say there was another death six days later’.”

National senator Ross Cadell suggested that failure to make the September incident public may have contributed to a second death on November 13, when another TPG customer died after his Samsung phone failed to connect to Triple Zero.

“By not saying anything, by being silent, we didn’t imply to people that this was a problem,” Cadell said. “Everybody’s silence potentially contributed to the second incident happening because we weren’t making people aware.”

Hanson-Young agrees: “If there had been public interest and knowledge of this incident on September 24th… then perhaps people would have taken these text messages, emails, and phone calls from TPG more seriously.”

The problems stem from the national 3G shutdown, which exposed a flaw in older devices. Some older phones still fall back to 3G for Triple Zero calls even if they use 4G for regular calls; This means that they completely fail when 3G networks are turned off.

TPG said Tuesday that 18,000 devices on its network could not reliably connect to Triple Zero, 10,000 devices needed software updates and 8,000 devices needed replacement. Despite two years of warnings, only 500 customers accepted free replacement phones.

“There are 8,000 people out there who will never be able to call Triple Zero on that phone,” Hanson-Young said.

“Good customer relations means giving these people a new phone now.”

Telstra had 29,000 affected devices and blocked them on 26 November. Brady said Telstra replaced almost 4,000 phones free of charge; this figure is eight times higher than TPG.

Samsung’s mobile boss, Eric Chou, told the hearing that his company only learned during Tuesday’s investigation that a death related to its devices had occurred on September 24. About 98,000 Samsung devices across three networks still need software updates.

Wells refused to attend the hearing and told Hanson-Young that he was “answerable to parliament in the House of Representatives”.

Wells was in New York on September 24, supporting the social media ban, on a trip that cost more than $100,000 in flight and hotel expenses for himself and two employees. The embattled minister also faces wider anger over his use of parliamentary spending.

“It is disturbing to hear about this tragic outcome,” he wrote to this imprint. “Investigations are ongoing into what happened and why the department and ACMA were not provided with accurate details.”

Senator Sarah Henderson said the onus was on the minister: “After the minister was informed through his private secretary on 24 September, was there any response from the minister or his office?”

Grunhard said there were “some discussions” but detailed questions were taken in advance.

When national senator Cadell accused the department of “looking good being more important than doing well”, Grunhard replied: “I think that is a very ugly thing to say about our hard-working staff and I really ask you to step down.” Cadell refused.

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Coalition communications spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh said news of another death was “sickening.”

“This person was unable to access help when he needed it most,” he said.

“[Wells has] He was at the UN, in New York. He eats lavish dinners. He was in Formula 1. He was at sporting events. He’s been playing tennis holding Comcar for seven hours, costing Australian taxpayers $1,000.

“I think your position is in doubt right now.”