Australia’s Triple Zero Custodian slacking off on the simple task of public awareness

For my sins I’ve spent much of today listening to politicians grandstanding in a Senate Estimates Committee undertaking an enquiry into the Triple Zero system, brought on by the Optus Triple Zero failures almost a year ago. While most of the reporting will focus on what went wrong at Telstra, what struck me was the lack of urgency from the very people charged with keeping tabs on our Triple Zero system.

That group is called the Triple Zero Custodian – which sits within the Department of Communications. The “Custodian” is not one person, I’ve no idea how many it is – but from the two that appeared before the enquiry today, and the two others listed in the Department’s online directory – let’s call it Four. At least.

Why am I saying they’ve been slacking off?

Well, in February – some months after the Optus outage, and after several initial Senate enquiries, the Minister for Communications called for a public information campaign surrounding the issues with Triple Zero, namely the delays Australian’s might experience when calling Triple Zero in an outage (related to the time it takes to “camp on” to another network), as well as the importance of smartphone software updates to ensure compatibility with our mobile networks.

Good idea right?

Well, what we’ve learned today at the public enquiry, and confirming what EFTM understood had happened, the Triple Zero custodian write to the Telcos via their industry body the  Australian Telecommunications Alliance (ATA).

This was on the 29th of May.

Within two weeks, the Telcos had replied, with the Custodian confirming they had received a response from the telcos in “Mid June”.

EFTM understands the Telcos position was supportive of a campaign to educate the public on this. Additionally, they felt the campaign should be led, and branded as a Government campaign.

Frankly, that makes sense – I think people would trust an Australian Government Advertisement on these issues far more than one by a Telco.

They also raised questions about the involvement of Device Manufacturers, like Apple or Samsung, especially important given it’s those very devices that were found to be problematic if not up to date with the latest software.

And of course, the big question – who’s paying for it?

It’s the same question asked of the Custodian today by one Senator. Has a budget been allocated? No. Could it be funded by the Custodian? Maybe. Talk of how they are funded via a Levy system ra ra ra.

But here’s the kicker. First Assistant Secretary of the Custodian Clare Chapple told the Senators today she would be replying to the Telcos “Next week”.

What now?

It’s been a month since the wrote to you – why has it taken so long? What on EARTH have you been doing with your days?

We all know bureaucracy is slow – but this is a serious issue, and frankly, should be the most important on their plate.

Consider this – if they got a campaign going by early July – that might have informed some of the 604 people who didn’t get through to Triple Zero during Telstra’s outage that in fact waiting, holding on might have connected them. We’ll never know will we?

How is this timeline acceptable to ANYONE in Government?

How is this not under intense scrutiny?

How is it that we’re approaching a year since Optus’ network outage and Triple Zero woes that we haven’t begun taking the learnings from that to educate the public.

As a taxpayer, I’m disgusted by this.

As someone who has actually done some public education through my various media reports on TV and Radio, I can tell you we need a maximum of one day in a room to decide the messaging, to script the ads, and record them for radio, and maybe a second day to record some TV ads, and a third day to edit them – and this whole shebang is off to the races.

Stop sitting on your arse, and get some work done.