Senate committee calls for nationalisation of Telstra infrastructure
- A Senate committee recommended the nationalisation of Australia's triple zero emergency call infrastructure.
- Telstra currently receives $21.9 million annually from the federal government to run the service.
- The proposal follows severe telecommunication network failures that prevented emergency calls from connecting.
An Australian Senate committee has recommended that the federal government consider nationalising the national emergency call system operated by Telstra (ASX:TLS).
The proposal comes after the major Optus network outage in September 2025 resulted in several deaths when emergency calls failed to connect.
"In line with this, the committee recommends that the Australian Government should consider assuming responsibility for the Triple Zero Emergency Call Person function to ensure that Triple Zero is operated as an essential public safety service and is not outsourced to the private sector," stated the official committee report.
Document disclosures reveal that Telstra invoiced the federal government $21.9 million to maintain and staff the essential emergency routeing service for all domestic telecommunications providers.
The proposed transition would require the federal government to establish a new statutory authority while acquiring necessary technical systems and transferring existing operational staff.
Following the announcement the Telstra share price was unchanged at $4.83.
The parliamentary enquiry argued that successive commercial network outages have demonstrated that private sector management is an unsuitable model for critical public safety services.
The committee suggested that establishing an independent statutory authority would better ensure continuous service delivery during widespread carrier disruptions.
