The federal government has unveiled new triple-zero laws after hauling multiple major telco bosses to Parliament House to address a string of serious outages.

The CEOs of Optus, Telstra and TPG arrived in Canberra this morning for a meeting with Communications Minister Anika Wells.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the minister, I’m sure it’ll be a productive meeting,” Optus CEO Stephen Rue said as he arrived.

The meeting is the latest please-explain from the government to Optus following a serious outage in its emergency network system across four states, which led to the deaths of three people who were unable to contact triple-zero.

Telstra also suffered smaller outages shortly after.

Wells announced today that new rules will be introduced next, forcing real-time reporting of those emergency breakdowns.

Although there is already a triple-zero custodian, the new laws will strengthen it as a permanent, proactive guardian, allowing it to have more oversight into the emergency services network.

“The law in Australia is clear – if an outage occurs, telcos must make sure that triple zero calls still connect by being redirected to alternate mobile towers – that responsibility rests with them,” Wells said.

The government will introduce legislation to bolster powers for a triple-zero custodian, which will be able to demand information from telcos to monitor triple-zero performance, identify risks, respond quickly to outages and make improvements.

“We know Australians’ confidence in triple zero has been shaken, and it’s vital that it’s rebuilt,” Wells said.

“With these new powers for the triple zero custodian, Australians can be assured of more active and effective monitoring of this most vital of services to make sure it meets the community’s needs.” 

The new rules, which will come into effect on November 1, will also force telcos to test triple-zero calls during upgrades and maintenance.

“I think resilience is very important, obviously, emergency services are very important, so it was an excellent meeting,” said Rue as he exited Parliament House.