Second death linked to triple-zero connection failure revealed as explosive inquiry reveals minister was not informed

2025-12-09 09:15

Anika Wells’ office was wrongly told no one had died after failing to connect to the triple zero network in September, leaving the communications minister and her department in the dark about the fatality for more than 10 weeks, an inquiry had heard.

The view inside Wells’ department only shifted after Telstra scrambled to clarify the situation on Monday night – just hours before it was due to front a parliamentary inquiry into the triple zero network.

Guardian Australian understands the minister’s office only became fully aware of the development when it was revealed at Tuesday’s inquiry hearings.

“It is disturbing to hear about this tragic outcome,” a government spokesperson told Guardian Australia, confirming the department and communications regulator were investigating why they had been misled.

The inquiry’s hearings uncovered serious failures in communication between the telcos and the government following a 24 September incident in which a person in Wentworth Falls, New South Wales, died after their outdated Samsung device failed to connect to the triple zero network.

It brings the number of triple zero-related fatalities revealed to be linked to an incompatible Samsung device to two, with another death occurring on 13 November.

TPG disclosed the November incident at the time in a statement to the ASX.

In evidence to Tuesday’s inquiry, a senior communications department official Sam Grunhard said Telstra – which operates the emergency call system – contacted the department on 24 September to report a suspected death.

After Telstra and TPG Telecom confirmed the case was under investigation, Grunhard said he notified Wells’ chief-of-staff.

The suspected death – which came just six days after the 18 September fatal Optus outage – was not publicly revealed by Wells, who was in New York on the trip that ignited her ongoing expenses controversy.

Grunhard could not recall if the chief-of-staff confirmed to him that he would inform Wells and it is not clear if the minister was ever told.

In a major twist, Grunhard revealed that on 26 September, two days after the incident, TPG advised him there was “no fatality associated with the incident”.

The minister’s office and the department were operating on the assumption that there had not been a death until Telstra contacted Grunhard late on Monday to “raise a concern that there seemed to be a difference in understanding about the 24 September incident”.

It is unclear how TPG reached the conclusion that a death had not occurred.

In his evidence to the hearing the telco’s chief executive, Iñaki Berroeta, said TPG was aware of the triple zero call failure but did not know it was linked to a death until Telstra notified them on Monday ahead of the hearing.

Asked by the Liberal senator, Sarah Henderson, why TPG only learned of the death on Monday, he said: “I have no idea, I don’t know.”

Giving evidence shortly after Berroeta, the Telstra chief executive, Vicki Brady, said the telco was informed of the death on 24 September via email from the New South Wales ambulance service.

The inquiry heard that Telstra contacted the federal communications department on the day of the incident and provided the ambulance service with the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s details.

It also alerted TPG Telecom, assuming it was aware that what was referred as the “Wentworth Falls incident” involved a death.

“You made a wrong assumption. You’ve assumed something that was incorrect,” Henderson told the Telstra executives.

Telstra spoke with Wells’ office on 20 October – almost a month after the death – to discuss an investigation into problems with the Samsung devices.

Asked if the death was raised at the meeting, Brady said: “Not that I can recall”.

The fatality also wasn’t raised at a separate 7 October meeting that Wells convened with telco bosses in the aftermath of the 18 September Optus outage, which was linked to three deaths.

Telstra’s general counsel, Lyndall Stoyles, said Telstra referred to a “particular incident” at the 20 October meeting “but not the details of the incident”.

“Wasn’t it material that you also raised that someone had passed away on the 24th of September? I know you advised the department, but it just seems such a missing and critical piece of information that this matter wasn’t raised with the minister directly,” Henderson asked.

In response, Brady said Telstra had briefed the department, ACMA and the NSW ambulance service.

The Greens communications spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, told the inquiry there had been a “cover-up”.

“I am absolutely flabbergasted that despite … the huge public concern we have about [triple zero outages] … not at one point in this did anyone within the industry want to fess up and say there’d been another death six days [after the Optus outage]. It’s a cover-up. You’re all looking after yourselves,” she said.

The head of Samsung’s mobile division, Eric Chou, said an investigation launched after the Wentworth Falls incident found there were 71 models that were either blocked or requiring an update.

He said the devices were sold between 2015 and 2021 and were configured to connect with Vodafone’s 3G network, as 4G emergency calling wasn’t available on Vodafone’s 4G network until 2021.

“Samsung has been working with each of the networks as a matter of urgency, assisting with the identification process for affected handsets that had previously not been identified during the time of the 3G shutdown,” Chou said.