Now lawTech & Online Introduced in the House of Representatives, 07 Oct 2025

Triple Zero Custodian now oversees emergency calls

Triple Zero (000) is Australia's emergency phone number. Two outages at the phone company Optus stopped people from reaching it. An outage is a time when a network stops working. This law puts one official in charge of the whole emergency call system. Phone companies that ignore an order can be fined up to $250,000 each time.

Official name: Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Triple Zero Custodian and Emergency Calling Powers) Bill 2025

Who it affects

• Anyone who might call Triple Zero: One official now has the job of watching the whole system so calls get through.
• Phone companies like Telstra, Optus and TPG: They can be ordered to share outage details, write plans or talk to emergency services. They can be fined if they refuse.
• Telstra and the National Relay Service: They answer Triple Zero calls, so they can get these orders too.
• State police, fire and ambulance services: They cannot be given orders under this law, but they can be told about outages.

Optus outage blocked Triple Zero

On 8 November 2023 the whole Optus network went down for about 12 hours. People could not call Triple Zero.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority is the media and phone watchdog. We will call it the watchdog. It later found 2,145 people could not make emergency calls. Optus paid more than $12 million in fines.

The government asked Richard Bean to look at what went wrong. He used to be second in charge at the watchdog. He found that each group in the Triple Zero chain only looked after its own piece. Nobody was in charge of the whole thing.

His second big idea was a Triple Zero Custodian. That is one person or body who watches the full system. It covers everything from the phone network to the person who answers the call.

The government set up a custodian inside the communications department in March 2025. But it had no legal powers.

Then on 18 September 2025 a second Optus outage hit Triple Zero calls in several states. The Minister for Communications told Parliament more than 600 calls were affected. Deaths were reported in homes where calls had failed.

The government brought in this bill on 7 October 2025. It gives the custodian real powers.

Who the custodian is

The law makes the head of the communications department the Triple Zero Custodian. The full name is the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts. The head can hand the job to a senior public servant, a government worker, in the department.

The custodian helps get ready for Triple Zero outages. It helps deal with them and helps things recover. It also watches how well the emergency call system works on normal days. The Minister can add more jobs, as long as they are about emergency calls.

The custodian does not give orders itself. It asks the watchdog to do it. The watchdog makes rules for phone companies and TV and radio, and makes sure they are followed.

New orders for phone companies

The watchdog can now give a written order to phone companies about emergency calls. It can also give orders to the companies that answer Triple Zero calls.

Right now Telstra and a company called Concentrix answer those calls. Concentrix runs the National Relay Service for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

An order can make a company hand over facts about how it runs emergency calls. That includes its plans, its steps and how it tests its gear.

During an outage, an order can ask which services are down and who is affected. It can ask when things will be fixed.

An order can also make a company share facts with someone else, such as an ambulance service. It can make a company talk with another group. It can make a company write new plans for emergency calls.

Say a storm knocks out a mobile tower. Calls in one town cannot reach Triple Zero. The watchdog could order the phone company to tell local police and ambulance straight away which areas are cut off.

Each order must say how long the company has to do what it says. The company can ask for more time.

If a company gives facts by phone, it must write them down later and send a copy. An order cannot make a company break the emergency call rules already in place.

ACMA must act when asked

The watchdog is normally independent. It does not take orders from the government. This law changes that for Triple Zero.

If the custodian asks the watchdog to give an order, it must do so within 7 days. It must be sooner if the custodian asks.

The watchdog must pass on whatever it learns to the custodian, with its own views. The watchdog can also give orders on its own, but it must send the custodian a copy.

The custodian can also ask the watchdog for facts or advice. The watchdog has 7 days to reply.

The custodian can ask the watchdog to look into a problem. The watchdog must decide within 30 days if it will. It must then tell the Minister and the custodian.

Fines up to $250,000

A company might not follow an order. Then a court can fine it up to $250,000 each time. This fine does not give anyone a criminal record.

People who help, push or plan with a company to break an order can also be fined. Orders can only go to companies, not to single people.

Who can share the information

The law sets out who can use the facts that are collected. The custodian and the watchdog can share them to get ready for outages, deal with them or recover. They can also share them to keep the system running.

They can share with phone companies, emergency services, the Minister and other governments. They can also share with the National Emergency Management Agency. This is the national body that leads the response to disasters.

Officials can also pass facts to courts, or to police to uphold the law. They can share them to stop a serious threat to someone's safety.

The government says the aim is to collect facts about companies, not personal details about callers. Any personal details must still be handled under privacy law.

Reports and a review

Every six months the watchdog must report to the Minister. The report lists the orders it gave. It lists the problems the custodian sent it, and what it chose to do about them. The custodian gets a copy.

In the second year after the law starts, the Minister can order a check on how well the new powers work.

The cost of the custodian's staff can be paid from a fund that already exists. That fund pays for public phone services.

One term for emergency services

The law tidies up how two phone laws talk about emergency services. It now uses one term, "emergency service". This covers police, fire, ambulance and any other service the watchdog names.

The office that writes federal laws suggested this change. It makes the laws easier to read.

Start date

The bill passed the House of Representatives on 8 October 2025. That was one day after it was brought in.

The Senate, Parliament's second house, passed it on 28 October 2025 with one change from the Greens. The House agreed to that change the same day.

The Governor-General, who stands in for the King, signed it into law on 30 October 2025. It is now Act No. 50 of 2025. It started the next day.

How they voted

Its journey through Parliament

Official sources

• Bill page on aph.gov.au
• Text of the bill
• Explanatory memorandum
• Bills Digest

Open the full interactive page