At a time when Australians are dying because their phones can’t dial triple-zero, Communications Minister Anika Wells somehow found the time — and nearly $100,000 of taxpayers’ money — to jet off to New York to sell the world on the Albanese Government’s “world-first” social-media ban.

While she was promoting herself on the global stage, the system she is actually responsible for — mobile device certification and emergency-call safety — was burning.

And it’s still burning.

A department asleep at the wheel

Wells oversees the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), the body meant to ensure mobile phones are safe, certified, and functional on Australian networks.

Instead, ACMA has been failing to collect unique identification codes, failing to regulate grey imports, and failing to ensure that foreign-tied devices don’t end up in Australian hands.

The result?
Phones never properly certified for 4G or 5G are being shipped in from China and beyond — and sold here with hardly a question asked.

Carriers, supposedly under ACMA’s scrutiny, have simply shrugged off responsibility for allowing older handsets to remain active on their networks long after 3G was switched off, despite knowing those devices could not make emergency calls, smartphone manufacturers are even told ‘Don’t Return Self Regulation Forms to ACMA.

Blame the phone, not the system

Wells and ACMA have leaned heavily on the line that Samsung handsets are at fault — even though those devices were properly certified at the time of sale.The real failure lies not with the manufacturer but with the regulators and carriers who continued to let these phones operate under new network conditions they were no longer compatible with.

The cost of that failure is not theoretical.
It is fatal.

A TPG customer using a previously certified Samsung phone attempted to call triple-zero.
The call never connected.
A person died.

And it wasn’t the only death linked to network-dependent emergency call failures.

A Minister abroad while a crisis unfolds

As the Optus drdeaths  were still being investigated, Wells was boarding a flight to New York — with two staff in tow — at a cost of $94,828.

That’s a staggering bill at a time when the Government is preaching austerity and cutting public-service budgets.

Senator Sarah Henderson was blunt:
“Not only did Anika Wells offensively jetset to New York as the Triple Zero crisis unfolded, she did so at enormous cost to Australian taxpayers.”

Wells’ priorities seem clear:
International photo-ops first; domestic safety failures later.

Regulate globally, fail locally

The Minister is pushing sweeping new regulations on social media — a headline-friendly crusade — while refusing to admit that Australia has a deep and long-ignored structural problem with mobile phone certification.

If device certification had been properly managed:

Grey imports could be blocked.

Foreign-locked devices would never make it into the market.

Carriers would be forced to remove unsafe handsets from their networks before people die.

Consumers wouldn’t be told to fend for themselves by constantly checking whether their own phone software is compatible with their own country.

Instead, Wells has handed ACMA another “investigation,” another review, another round of bureaucratic chin-stroking — anything but real reform.

A crisis of the government’s own making

Let’s be clear:
This is no longer a technical dispute between telcos and handset manufacturers.
It is a national safety failure — one created and ignored by the very people now running from responsibility.

And while Australians bury loved ones whose emergency calls never connected, the Minister responsible for fixing the system is busy burnishing her international credentials.

If Anika Wells spent as much time repairing Australia’s broken mobile-safety regime as she does circling the globe, Australians wouldn’t be dying because their phone can’t reach 000.

Until she fronts up and fixes the mess under her own roof, all the overseas speeches in the world won’t hide the brutal truth:

The government is failing at the most basic job it has — keeping Australians safe.