The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) welcomes the passage of the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Triple Zero Custodian and Emergency Calling Powers) Bill 2025 through the Federal Parliament.
The legislation, introduced into Parliament by the Minister for Communications, the Hon Anika Wells MP, establishes a Triple Zero Custodian within the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts, and provides the ACMA with new powers to direct action from the telco industry to ensure the effective functioning of the Emergency Call Service (ECS).
The legislation complements a range of measures implemented in response to the Review into the Optus Outage of 8 November 2023, including establishing enforceable regulatory obligations on telcos to:
- communicate with customers and other key stakeholders in the Triple Zero ecosystem during major and significant local outages
- improved network and device testing requirements, and
- enhanced complaints handling requirements for network outages.
Acting ACMA Chair Adam Suckling said the passage of the legislation is the next important step in improving the resilience and oversight of Australia's emergency call system.
"Australians need confidence that Triple Zero will work when they need it most. The ACMA looks forward to working with the Custodian as it works with telcos and other stakeholders in the Triple Zero ecosystem to improve preparedness for ECS outage events and oversights the the effective functioning of emergency call services.
"We welcome the Government's commitment to improving emergency call resilience. These changes complement ACMA's regulatory role and will help protect Australians when they are at their most vulnerable, including in life-threatening situations," Mr Suckling said.
The ACMA will continue to work closely with the Department and industry to implement the new framework.
