News and politics live updates: Anika Wells says Telstra must ‘face the music’ after nationwide outage

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A couple of weeks ago, Liberal leader Angus Taylor walked out of Parliament’s Great Hall wearing a dinner suit and the disappointment of someone who just bombed.

Last night, he recovered from a poorly received mid-winter ball appearance by telling 150 guests of the Sydney Institute what Liberals have been waiting all year to hear. Pauline Hanson and One Nation are not fit to govern Australia and would wreck the economy, he said in a speech that could turn out to be one of the most important of his time as opposition leader.

“One Nation is a column of smoke,” he said. “Long on rhetoric but short on substance, One Nation’s offering is a random grab bag of poorly defined, contradictory, and constantly changing positions that leave no clear sense of who they are or what they stand for.”

Until now, Mr Taylor restrained from criticising One Nation too much, wary of upsetting ex-Coalition voters who might offended by tough talk about their new political home.

Now, there is no restraint. One Nation is the enemy. “One Nation would send us broke,” he said Thursday evening. “Deep down, their true instincts are toward big government interventionism.

​Read the full story. ​

Authorities in South Australia have today confirmed that the first case of H5 bird flu in a native Australian bird has been discovered.

Meanwhile, in NSW tests are being carried out on a dead seal which could confirm the first detection in a mammal on Australian soil.

Until now, every confirmed case in Australia has been in a migratory bird.

The bird, a greater crested tern, was found dead at the Robe Marina on Tuesday.

Two other suspected cases, giant petrels found at Emu Bay and Port Vincent respectively, have also been confirmed.

“Importantly, while this is the first confirmed detection in an Australian seabird, it is being treated as an isolated incident,” said SA primary industries minister Clare Scriven.

“There remains no detections in poultry or any signs of mass mortalities, anywhere in Australia.”

- with NCA Newswire

I don’t know exactly where Bushie-gate sits in the pantheon of political gaffes, but I doubt it would make the first page.

Was anyone genuinely offended by Anthony Albanese’s ill-advised decision to get on the couch with comedian Nikki Osborne? I mean properly appalled?

Watching the Prime Minister talk about his sex life, even in the obtuse way he did, was certainly icky but it was hardly a “grab them by the pussy” and getting spanked by a porn star, a la The Donald.

The 20-minute video of Albo talking to Osborne’s character Bushie, a gonzo journalist styled as a female Steve Irwin, dropped onto YouTube late last week. Nobody really took any notice of it until Monday, when the PM apologised.

That apology appeared to galvanise a lot of people who, having been previously plussed, became not just nonplussed but hysterically so.

It was always going to be a minefield for the very model of a modern prime minister and Albo stepped on a Claymore when Osborne invited him to play the game “shag, marry, date”.

Albanese’s press advisers surely know there are enough gotcha moments out there without politicians engineering them.

Read the full opinon piece.

South Australian police have confirmed a woman’s death was not linked to the Telstra outage, despite earlier claims made by a Liberal senator.

Police in the State launched an investigation following claims from South Australian Senator Kerrynne Liddle on social media that a woman had died due to calls to triple-zero not being able be connected during Wednesday’s outage.

The investigation revealed the woman was found unresponsive at 10am on Wednesday by her partner.

The partner called a neighbour, who had medical experience, via a Telstra phone, with the call able to be connected.

The neighbour, who also had a Telstra phone, later called triple-zero, which also went through.

However, later calls after the woman was transported to hospital were not able to be connected, police said. The woman later died in hospital.

“It now appears that these difficulties may have been misinterpreted and formed the basis of the belief that the woman’s death was connected to the 000 outage,” SA police said in a statement.

“It is unfortunate their loved one’s death was placed in the public arena in the manner it was when it need not have been.”

Communications Minister Anika Wells said it was a relief there had been no deaths linked to the Telstra outage.

- with AAP

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has paid tribue to Derryn Hinch following his death at age 82.

“Derryn Hinch lived a life rich in colour and free from fear,” the PM wrote of the veteran broadcaster and former senator on X.

“As an interviewer, investigator and presenter he was much more than ‘the Human Headline’ he had a sense of the deeper story and the courage to cover it, come what may.

“He held to those same instincts as a Senator and he fought illness with that same bravery. My sincere condolences to his family and his many friends.”

Anika Wells says it is a “huge relief” South Australian Police have ruled out a link between Telstra’s nationwide outage and the death of an elderly South Australian woman after confirming reports of a failed triple-0 call were incorrect.

Speaking after the police update, Ms Wells said she had previously been advised by the triple-0 custodian there had been no adverse outcomes from the outage, but the South Australian case had remained an exception while investigations continued.

Ms Wells also criticised the handling of the allegations, saying she was “staggered” it took police door-knocking a South Australian senator to obtain the information needed to investigate the claim.

“I am relieved that the outcome here is that there is no causative link between the outage and what is a tragic loss for the family,” she said, offering her condolences to the woman’s loved ones.

Anika Wells has refused to speculate on reports Telstra was warned about vulnerabilities in its network before this week’s nationwide outage, saying the government would wait for the findings of multiple investigations before drawing conclusions.

Ms Wells said upcoming reviews by the Australian Communications and Media Authority and the triple-0 custodian would examine what happened and whether the outage could have been prevented.

Ms Wells said Telstra would be required to provide a detailed report within 45 days outlining the cause of the outage and the steps it would take to prevent it from happening again.

She also urged the Coalition to back legislation that would give the government new powers to mandate minimum telecommunications standards, saying it had so far failed to support the reforms.

Asked about Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady’s public apology, Ms Wells said, “It was the right thing to do.”

Communications Minister Anika Wells says Telstra must now “face the music” after confirming the telco has formally advised the triple-0 custodian its nationwide outage has been resolved.

Speaking in Canberra on Friday, Ms Wells said all outstanding welfare checks referred to state emergency services had now been completed, with “no adverse outcomes” identified among those cases. She thanked emergency responders who assisted the seven people found to require help, saying their “quick and diligent work on this occasion may well have saved lives”.

Ms Wells said the focus would now shift to holding Telstra accountable for the outage, warning the company had “a lot of questions to answer” and would need to rebuild the trust of Australians.

“Telstra has held special trust from Australians... But that trust really stands in peril today,” she said.

“It is going to take Telstra a lot of time and a lot of work to rebuild that trust with Australians.”

Ms Wells said the government expected Telstra to cooperate “fully and transparently” with all investigations and vowed it would “not take a backward step” when it came to holding telecommunications companies to account.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says key supplies of PAC-3 Patriot interceptors would arrive from the US in the next few days.

Mr Zelenskiy said the two countries had reached a political agreement on licenses for the production of the missiles.

The Patriot is a US-made air defence system. Its PAC-3 interceptor - short for Patriot Advanced Capability-3 - is one of the few Western weapons capable of shooting down the ballistic missiles Russia has increasingly fired at Ukrainian cities.

Mr Zelenskiy, speaking to reporters after returning from a NATO summit and talks with US President Donald Trump in Turkey, also said that talks were proceeding with America on a “drone deal” or joint drone production.

Reuters