As Optus struggles to get triple-0 working, its top network-security job may be vacant almost 12 months

The job at Optus responsible for ensuring the integrity of its network is likely to be empty for the whole of 2025 because the phone company took six months to find a replacement chief risk officer, who had to give his employer six months’ notice.

As Optus reported another triple-0 outage on the weekend, sources said new chief risk officer Pieter van der Merwe has not begun work at the company even though he was appointed in June.

When the triple-0 service failed last Thursday for Optus customers in Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory and a border region of NSW, potentially contributing to the deaths of three people, the job was being filled by a temporary appointment.

Chief executive Stephen Rue decided the chief risk officer position will report to him and be given wide powers in response to a catastrophic failure of the Optus network in 2023, an outage that affected 10 million people.

Six months’ notice

The previous chief risk officer, Poppy Fassos, resigned last December, she told The Nightly. Her replacement, Mr van der Merwe, was given the expanded title of chief security and risk officer.

At the time, Mr Rue said the South African computer security specialist would “strengthen our business and further enhance our security posture across all actions that can damage our business and impact our customers.”

But as the chief security officer at Woolworths, Mr van der Merwe was likely required to give six months’ notice, according to two sources. He is still working at Woolworths and not expected to start at Optus until December. He did not respond to a request for comment.

The position is responsible for determining the risk of the network failing and advising the chief executive and board so they can allocate resources to fix any problems, a top telecommunications-IT expert, Sam Mackenzie, told The Nightly.

The job is “very important,” Mr Mackenzie said. “Ever so more important because they are managing a community-essential service — a national critical service.”

An Optus spokesperson did provide comment seven hours after being asked about the delay filling the position. When previously asked to confirm if the job was being manned by a temporary appointment, the phone company did not answer.

Dapto down

The triple-000 service failed early on the morning of September 18 when technicians upgrading a firewall did not follow procedure and inadvertently disconnected access to some customers, according to Optus. Complaints to Optus call centres were not acted on because the company’s computer system did not detect a problem.

On Sunday, in the NSW town of Dapto, nine triple-0 calls failed to get through because of a problem with a mobile phone tower that lasted from 3am to 12.20pm.

One of the callers, who required an ambulance, used another phone to contact emergency services, Optus said.

When a triple-0 call does not work on Optus, it is meant to be automatically routed through the Telstra network. Why this did not happen on Sunday has not been explained.

“All callers who attempted to contact emergency services are OK,” an Optus spokesperson said.

Meetings in NYC

Accusing Communications Minister Anika Wells of “swanning around New York” during the crisis, Liberal leader Sussan Ley called for an independent inquiry into the triple-0 system.

“This is a minister who failed in aged care, who is failing in communications, and who seemed to fail upwards on a seat on a plane to New York,” the Opposition Leader said. “It is not good enough.”

Ms Wells went to the United Nations last week to promote Australia’s ban on under 16s using social media.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Australians don’t have reason to lose faith in the triple-0 system while slamming the latest outage. “This can’t happen again,” he said. “This is an absolutely shocking failure.”

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said latest outage was “clearly unacceptable”. “NSW deserves full and transparent information from Optus about what went wrong yesterday, including when emergency services and the telco authority were notified,” he said.

The chief executive of Optus parent Singtel, Yuen Kuan Moon, is scheduled to meet today with Mr Rue and Ms Wells, the communications minister, who has complained that Optus may not have implemented the recommendations of a review into the 2023 outage.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority is conducting an investigation into the triple-0 problems. Heavy fines are expected. There is widespread speculation Mr Rue could lose his job.