Hi Petition Signers,
It's been a few months since the last Petition Update in early December.
The petition has continued to grow in numbers and thank you to those that have signed & shared.
Thought I would share that I recently wrote an article about the Triple Zero Failures from late last year, along with what the industry has done (and has failed to do) in response.
Australia’s 000 Failures: Why your phone may fail to Call Triple Zero
https://medium.com/@jamesdwho/australias-000-failures-why-your-phone-may-fail-to-call-triple-zero-af8e505d58fc
A copy of the article was also published on 'Independent Australia' earlier this week, though the Medium version is the better version to read as it has more pictures, tables and data extracts compared to the IA version.
Australia’s 000 Failures: Why your phone may fail to Call Triple Zero - IA
https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/australias-000-failures-why-your-phone-may-fail-to-call-triple-zero,20923
Please share the article on to anyone you think may find it of interest!
I had written it in advance of the planned 14 April 2026 Senate Inquiry reporting date, but that shows as now having been extended to June 30.
Triple Zero Outage Senate Inquiry
In relation to the ongoing Triple Zero Outage Senate Inquiry, in mid December my submission to the Inquiry was uploaded to the Inquiry Submissions page (Submission #23).
A direct PDF copy can be found here.
A number of submissions from other Petition signers were also uploaded around that time.
My (25 Nov) submission is 114 pages and details the range of issues that continue to impact consumers, along with continued failures by the industry.
This includes showing Vehicle Asset Trackers & IoT devices blocked by Optus, Telstra's continued Emergency Calling Standards failures, along with the background regulatory failures that have resulted in the mess we find ourselves in today.
Will this ever be resolved?
For those wondering if there is any awareness of this issue by the Government and will anything ever be done.
As noted in my submission, last year I've met with the Department of Infrastructure, Communications Minister Wells (she is my Local MP) and representatives from the ACMA.
The first of these meetings was in May last year with the Department and that meeting followed on from the letter I sent to (then) Minister Rowland in March 2025 (copies are on the Inquiry Submissions Page).
The engagement to date with the Department (and the new Triple Zero Custodian Branch) (including earlier this year) has been constructive and there is awareness of the inconsistent blocking problem by all involved, along with the broader compatibility & safety issues.
This is even noted in a recent Department FOI release (FOI 26-158)
It's worth noting the meeting I had with the Communications Minister last year happened on Wednesday 17 September, which by chance was 12 hours before the Optus Triple Zero Failure.
Given events following on from that meeting, it's become clear that all of this needs to be addressed, if it already wasn't clear then.
People have been able to use 'officially supported' devices that cannot call Triple Zero for some time.
That's in addition to perfectly compatible devices being blocked by some or all of the providers.
However despite all of this, as of yet nothing has meaningfully changed, but may at some point.
Many of these matters currently fall under the jurisdiction of the ACMA (the regulator) to administer, and to date I've only had one meeting with the ACMA which was back in October.
So far there has yet to be a follow-up.
Triple Zero Review
As noted in the article I wrote, Minister Wells announced earlier in the year a review of Triple Zero Laws.
One of the 'matters for consideration' is "The effectiveness and appropriateness of rules requiring that customer equipment to be capable of contacting Triple Zero" (i.e Device Blocking)
Triple Zero Legislative and Regulatory Review
According to some of the recent Senate Hearings with the Department of Communications, there apparently will be a public consultation period with the full Triple Zero review.
Though all of that and any detail is yet to be announced.
But for those impacted by these issues, (and if you haven't already done so) please write to the Communications Minister and the ACMA about this and your experience.
There is only so much I can say and do alone.
Without continued pressure and demand for change & accountability from the industry nothing will improve.
There are many things that have been said to me in the meetings I've had (which I won't repeat here).
But what is clear is that your continued complaints and pressure is very important, even though so far basically nothing has been done to really fix this.
We don't even have transparency of lists and the reasons why devices are blocked or not!
Also disappointingly, despite all of this and writing a submission to the Senate Inquiry I've yet to formally hear from the Inquiry Senate Committee and have not been called as a Witness.
Despite also being a Witness at the 3G Shutdown Inquiry in 2024 and warning about all of these issues (thought it was a different Committee).
It does seem that the Committee is not aware of these issues in depth, so if you have the time I would also recommend contacting Senators that are on the Environment and Communications Committee. (Either via email or via Calling their offices)
Please reference my submission and this petition in your correspondence.
References Committee on Environment and Communications - Triple Zero Outage Inquiry
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/References_Committee_Membership
Further resources on how to write to your Local MP, the Communications Minister, Regulators (ACCC & ACMA) are below.
AEC Electorate:
https://electorate.aec.gov.au
APH - Contacting Senators and Members
https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Contacting_Senators_and_Members
ACCC - Report a Consumer Issue:
https://www.accc.gov.au/about-us/contact-us-or-report-an-issue/report-a-consumer-issue
ACMA - Contact Us:
https://www.acma.gov.au/contact-us
Communications Minister Contact:
https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/wells/contact
As always, you are welcome to contact me if you have any further information you want to share, multiple contact methods are available, including secure methods.
https://medium.com/@jamesdwho/about
https://isthisphoneblocked.net.au/contact
These issues are entirely fixable and this can all change, but it will require continued political pressure from you to make that happen.
Everyone involved absolutely knows about these issues and this can change!
Regards
James