At Monday’s Senate inquiry, 3 November, Optus and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) were questioned about the deadly September Triple Zero outage. Optus executives justified the nearly 18-hour gap between the telco giant learning of a death connected to the outage and informing the federal regulator, the ACMA.

Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) CEO Carol Bennett said that the failure of Optus to brief the ACMA on critical developments regarding the outage is unsurprising. “It has been clear for some time that industry views the ACMA as a paper tiger, with the consequences of appalling behaviour more likely to be a letter than actual action,” said Ms Bennett. “The failure of the ACMA to take action to confirm the accuracy of the information provided by Optus is extremely concerning.”

The inquiry also revealed that although the regulator suspected the initial information it received was “odd,” it took no steps to verify its accuracy for a full day. While the ACMA has defended its inaction by claiming that Optus had informed them the outage was resolved, it admitted to having doubts about the reliability of the information provided by the company.

“The lack of action by the regulator paints a troubling picture of a dysfunctional culture within the ACMA, characterised by an undue reliance on industry to oversight itself and a bureaucratic disconnect from a fundamental role of government – keeping the public safe,” said Ms Bennett.

“The public expects clear rules and regulations for private sector companies providing services which underpin public safety. The public also expect there is a regulator on the beat to enforce these rules and hold them to account when they fail catastrophically, like in this instance.”

There are growing concerns about the ACMA’s powers as Australia’s communications regulator and its role in protecting the public interest. Last week, 29 October, a ChannelNews investigation also found that several mobile phone brands sold in Australia have never been questioned by ACMA about their certification status.