SA Police investigating Senator’s triple zero death claim
SA Police are investigating a country death after reviewing an opposition senator’s “dangerous” social media post alleging a person had died during yesterday’s Telstra triple-zero outage.
SA Police have confirmed they are investigating a death that occurred on Wednesday in regional South Australia following a nationwide Telstra outage.
It follows a Liberal Senator’s social media post claiming an elderly person had died after being unable to contact triple-zero during a nationwide Telstra outage which was criticised by the state police minister.
In a statement, SAPOL confirmed officers attended the office of Senator Liddle and spoke with both the staff member and Liddle on Thursday.
“As a result, contact was subsequently made with the family of an individual who died at a regional hospital,” the statement said.
“Police were not notified of the death. After being advised of the death, police immediately commenced an investigation into the cause and circumstances. A report will be provided to the coroner.”
Senator Kerrynne Liddle, who is also Liberal Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, made a post to Facebook on Wednesday night claiming an elderly South Australian had died after being unable to contact emergency services. The Facebook post is still published on her account.
“My office has received a report of a tragic death following an apparent failure to connect to triple-zero during a life-or-death emergency amid Telstra’s nationwide outage today,” Liddle shared on Facebook.
“This death of an elderly South Australian represents a devastating failure for their family. Our thoughts are with them.”
Police Minister Michael Brown told reporters earlier today that SA Police had found no evidence to back up Liddle’s claims.
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“As I understand it today, they are seeking to contact her again and get information from her, and I would call on her to reveal the information that she has,” Brown said.
“She doesn’t need to do so publicly, but she at least needs to help police understand what’s going on and get to the bottom of the situation.
“If she refuses to do that, and she continues not to do it, then I call on identities within the Liberal Party such as Ashton Hurn and even the federal leader to get onto her and make sure she complies.”
Brown said it was “downright dangerous” for Liddle to publicly share “speculative information”.
“Parliamentarians have a special obligation. We have an obligation to do things honestly and do things fairly,” he said.
“When we get information, we should take the steps to actually check that information is correct before we put it out in the public arena.
“Senator Liddle could have called me, called the police commissioner, contacted the police and she could have spoken to the media if she wanted to. Instead, she chose to put information out publicly, which could be to the detriment of the people of SA.”
Liddle has since responded to Brown’s comments, saying she was “disappointed that the SA Minister for Police chose to front the media and question my integrity in this process”.
“After contact from Telstra, media and relevant authorities, my office advised the family to reach out to SAPOL directly. The grieving family did that today,” she said.
“Amid much public interest I prioritised the privacy of the family during this time. I stand with them.
“Reporting suggests Australians were still unable to get through to Triple Zero overnight due to ongoing issues with the Telstra network. That is completely unacceptable.
“Anyone impacted by this outage should tell their story to Telstra, Minister Anika Wells and to relevant authorities.”
A SAPOL update as of 8:30 Thursday morning confirmed a small number of calls from Telstra customers to triple-zero were failing to connect after the nation has been hit by two days of outages.
“Telstra advise that in these cases, when you call Triple Zero you will receive an error message and your phone will try to connect to an alternative mobile network which can take up to 90 seconds,” the spokesperson said.
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“If you are experiencing service disruptions and require emergency assistance, the same device may connect on a second attempt, or please seek an alternative phone service where possible.
“If you cannot contact emergency services, seek immediate assistance from neighbours, local emergency service providers, or community support networks.”
The police minister and SAPOL have both advised that there are no outstanding welfare checks to be conducted.
Meanwhile, the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) has advised that train services are “progressively returning to normal” following the cancellation of services – including The Ghan – on Wednesday.
“Freight and passenger train services are resuming using ARTC’s standard operating procedures, with the National Train Communications System (NTCS) now functioning reliably,” an ARTC spokesperson said.
“Priority is being given to the staged return of key passenger services, including metropolitan and regional services in New South Wales, V/Line services in Victoria and interstate passenger services, recognising that individual operators require time to position trains and crews before normal timetables can resume.
“ARTC expects network operations to progressively build throughout the morning, with a return to normal operating arrangements from later today, subject to operators being ready to resume services.”
Meanwhile, a Victorian Liberal senator has doubled down on her decision to make test calls to triple zero to see if they would go through during the Telstra outage.
Sarah Henderson, the opposition’s communication’s spokeswoman, made two calls to the triple zero network after the service was disrupted by the widespread outage.
Making false calls to triple zero is a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of three years in prison, and Senator Henderson’s test calls have been criticised by Labor as irresponsible.
But the senator has insisted she was within her right to make the test calls.
“I was simply, as the shadow minister for communications, making those initial calls to work out whether the … system was actually operating,” she told Sydney radio station 2GB on Thursday.
“I accept the criticism, but what I will say is that I am in a unique position holding this government to account.”
Industry Minister Tim Ayres said making the calls at a time when the emergency phone network was being impacted was reckless.“I was absolutely shocked by that revelation. I just say to Australians, don’t do what she did,” he told ABC Radio.
EFTPOS machine company Tyro has reported the outage has affected payment transactions.
At its peak, more than 7000 customers reported the network disturbance on online monitoring platform Downdetector.
The latest outage comes after other telecommunications giants Vodafone and Optus previously experienced major network disruptions.
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