Newschat on the Today Show

CHARLES CROUCHER, HOST: Telstra is this morning facing up to $30 million in fines after it was revealed a broken data centre clock sparked the network's worst nationwide outage in a decade. Joining us to discuss today's headlines is Minister for Employment, Amanda Rishworth, and Shadow Minister for the Environment, Andrew Bragg. Good morning to you both.

Amanda, we'll start with you. More than 300 people unable to make Triple Zero calls because of a software glitch. How is our emergency architecture still this fragile?

AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS: Well, look, firstly I would say this is deeply, deeply concerning, and there are a lot of questions for Telstra to answer. Of course, our immediate focus is making sure as a government we're working to ensure that services are restored. Most importantly, that welfare checks are occurring.

And I do understand that there are welfare checks occurring for those. But it is unacceptable, to be quite frank. And there are real questions for Telstra about what they are doing.

There's investigations by ACMA underway as well as the Triple Zero custodian. As you've identified, very significant fines. We've doubled those fines.

But really, we need to make sure that we get services back online. That's what Telstra needs to do. And then importantly, make sure how this happened is fixed so it doesn't happen again.

CHARLES CROUCHER: So Andrew, fines have been doubled. That didn't prevent this from happening. Should they be doubled again, and should the government be doing more to guarantee this service?

ANDREW BRAGG, SHADOW MINISTER FOR ENVIRONMENT: Well sadly, people are going to have to get used to this in Australia, because this is becoming the new normal. We're becoming a very sick country which is declining. And unfortunately, outages and major problems are going to become the new normal because the country is on the highway to hell here with a high tax, high regulation, huge government, and there's no competition, no innovation and sadly, this is the new normal in Australia under these guys.

They’re hopeless. AMANDA RISHWORTH: Please, that is not taking this issue seriously, Andrew. CHARLES CROUCHER: So should fines go up, Amanda?

ANDREW BRAGG: Well, it is. It's happened last year, it's happened this year, it happens every year under you guys. Every year, there's these problems now.

We never had this in the past. AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, that is a really ridiculous thing to say. Of course, this is an obligation on Telstra and Optus.

To somehow suggest that it's not their obligation and their responsibility to fix is quite frankly letting them off the hook. And I am really, really disappointed in your response there. CHARLES CROUCHER: Andrew, I just want to speak on the issue of penalties.

Calling Triple Zero without an emergency carries penalties of up to three years in prison. Are you confident that your colleague, Sarah Henderson, was in the right when she was testing if Triple Zero was working yesterday? ANDREW BRAGG: I mean, people shouldn't call Triple Zero unless it's an emergency, that's clear.

But I make the point to Amanda that this is what happens when you have a socialist-style approach. Ultimately, you have less competition, less innovation There's not the incentives for companies to do the right thing because this is what happens when you have a socialist economy. CHARLES CROUCHER: AMANDA RISHWORTH: This was a private company and quite frankly, Telstra needs to explain itself.

There is strong regulation in place. I'm not sure if Andrew is now arguing for less of regulation of our Triple Zero call or more. ANDREW BRAGG: It’s failed.

AMANDA RISHWORTH: It's very unclear. ANDREW BRAGG: It's failed. AMANDA RISHWORTH: But I really would say that when it came to the actions of Sarah Henderson, that was not okay from a government Shadow Minister.

She should not have made those calls. You should only call Triple Zero in an emergency. CHARLES CROUCHER: While this fight continues, I want to bring in Pauline Hanson in London.

She had plans to meet Nigel Farage. That may have come undone because he has quit. He's forcing a by-election following his dispute over personal finances.

Amanda, the major parties have backed off. They've called his bluff. They won't contest.

But there is one man that will. CHARLES CROUCHER: That is Count Binface. Could he prove the spoiler, Amanda?

Is there any plans to nationalise some Australian artists just like Adele? AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, look, I'm not going to weigh into UK politics. I'm sure it'll bring a lot of humour to UK politics.

But in terms of who, for example, Pauline Hanson gets her policy advice, that's a matter for her. But quite frankly, some of her policies, particularly when it comes to workers' rights in the country, are pretty off and don't really support workers. CHARLES CROUCHER: That was Pauline with Holly Valance.

Maybe you could her music. Andrew, any lesson here for Pauline Hanson, or just is it the Brits have the chance to do the funniest thing in a long time? ANDREW BRAGG: Well, most workers in Australia today will be going to work in Australia.

They won't be swanning around the UK having beers with Farage or beers with Holly Valance. And so, I suggest she comes back to Australia and get working on some real policies, throw the crayons away and do some actual policy work. CHARLES CROUCHER: Andrew and Amanda, great speaking with you this morning.