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There have been fiery exchanges before Senate Estimates over the Albanese government's handling of last year's massive Optus outage, which left millions without coverage and thousands unable to make emergency calls.
Last month the ABC revealed at the height of the telco crisis Optus and the federal government spent hours telling the public triple-0 calls from mobiles should work, despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
That evidence came from internal government documents, which were obtained under Freedom of Information laws.
It included the triple-0 operator Telstra telling the Communications Minister Michelle Rowland in a meeting that some emergency calls from Optus phones weren't working, as well as her department and the regulator ACMA making test calls, with some failing.
Despite being across those concerns, the minister later told a press conference that calls from Optus mobiles to emergency services would still work because a backup system remained operational.
The opposition has attacked Minister Rowland's decision not to tell the public, saying she should have done so.
Loading...However, the minister's office says it had contacted Optus for clarification and was waiting to hear back.
It was only hours later that Optus corrected the record and admitted some people couldn't call and needed to urgently seek alternative arrangements.
Thousands of callers unable to contact triple-0
Optus now says almost 2,700 customers tried and failed to call emergency services.
That's more than 10 times higher than what it first told the Senate during an inquiry last year, when it said the figure was 228.
During an outage, emergency calls to triple-0 are still meant to go through smoothly, using other networks with what's known as "emergency camp-on".
In a robust exchange at Estimates, senior members of the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts were questioned on why the minister didn't tell her 11am press conference that there were reports some calls from Optus to triple-0 were not getting through.
"Three people that are in this conversation, ACMA, yourself and Telstra, have all experienced calls not getting through, and we go 'not a problem, camp-on working'?"
Nationals senator Ross Cadell asked deputy secretary for communications and media Richard Windeyer.
Mr Windeyer: "Because we had thousands of calls going through on camp-on."
Senator Cadell: "We have thousands of calls not going through on camp-on, it seems as well."
Mr Windeyer: "At that point in the day, we had a small number of calls that have been attempted with no ability to work out whether that was a systemic issue associated with Optus or not. Simultaneously, [we had] … evidence of thousands of calls successfully camping-on and we had the network operator saying it was working."
Mr Cadell continued:
"[Everyone sensed] something was crook in Tobruk, but because Optus says 'yep you beauty', we go out and say good on you people, dial triple-0?"
The department vigorously defended the decision not to go out and tell the public that emergency calls from Optus phones were not working.
Department head Jim Betts: "It is not a risk free proposition to advise the community that triple-0 is not working, when people may be under threat or in danger, particularly if you are relying purely on incomplete anecdotal evidence, which is emerging in real time and the provider is putting out strong statements that it is working.
"It would have been a very big call to go out and spread that concern in the community and possibly have had disastrous adverse consequences."
Senator Cadell: "Why is it binary between triple-0 is not working and triple-0 is working? Why is it not a triple-0 might have difficulties in time. Try another phone if you can't make it. Why is it binary? Why does it have to be working?"
Mr Betts: "Optus's answer was the answer … that was being principally relied on, which is the entirely reasonable thing to do unless you have compelling evidence."
Senator Cadell was critical of the department for trying to make triple-0 test calls, two of which failed, but not telling the minister.
The department defended this, arguing it was only anecdotal information.
Mr Windeyer: "It is important to make sure that we didn't tell people that something wasn't working when it was."
Senator Cadell: "98 per cent of the Titanic didn't hit an iceberg.
"You know, this is the bit that matters, these thousands of calls that didn't get through to triple-0."
A spokesperson for Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has previously defended the minister's handling of the Optus crisis.
She told the ABC in a statement:
"Minister Rowland stressed the importance of clear and timely communication from Optus about the nature of the outage and its impacts both on 8 November and in the days following.
"The regulator – the Australian Communications and Media Authority – is currently conducting an independent investigation of Optus' compliance with the rules requiring emergency calls to be carried from mobile carriers to the Emergency Call Person (Telstra).
"The Government announced a post-incident review on 9 November to ensure the telecommunications industry learns the lessons from this outage. The Terms of Reference go specifically to issues around the performance and operation of Triple Zero."
That post-incident review by Richard Bean, a former deputy chair of ACMA is due to be handed to the government later this month.
A Senate inquiry remains ongoing with Telstra and the department yet to give evidence.