‘Not about me’: Optus boss won’t quit over triple-0 failures, blames staff errors
Optus chief executive Stephen Rue has blamed human error by his own tech and call centre staff for the failure to connect emergency calls that’s now linked to three deaths across South and West Australia last week.
Speaking at the telco’s North Sydney headquarters on Tuesday, Mr Rue dismissed politicians’ calls for his resignation after more than 600 calls to emergency services went unconnected due to a faulty systems upgrade that he suggested was not his responsibility.
“This is not about me,” he told a media conference in response to a question about his resignation.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“What we have here is lives that have been lost. What we have is a failure of triple-0, what we have is a process in call centres that’s not been followed. So what this is about is ensuring we have the facts, ensuring those facts are shared, and ensuring that what comes out of those facts is implemented.”
Three deaths
The telco chief who has been in the role since November 2024 said the network failed to connect because the first part of a three-stage process to upgrade a firewall failed due to unspecified staff members incorrectly following instructions.
“The process was not followed,” he said. “It should be reiterated the issue occurred because there was a deviation in the established process and it will determine why triple-0 calls did not divert.”
The telco chief executive added he had contacted police in Western and South Australia to ask if they felt it was appropriate for him to communicate with the family members of two dead Perth men, aged 74 and 49, and a 68-year-old woman in Adelaide.
“If the advice is it’s appropriate for me to reach out, it is my desire to do,” he said.
Independent review
On Tuesday Optus also announced it has appointed Kerry Schott AO to lead an Independent Review into the September 18 outage. The Independent Review is expected to be completed before the end of the year.
Mr Rue insisted the failings are not linked to insufficient investment into the Optus network in Australia and said Singapore-based owner Singtel had invested $9.3 billion into the business over the past five years.
“This is not an investment issue, this is people not following processes,” said Mr Rue of the telco’s failure to connect calls and escalate customers’ complaints that the calls were not being connected.
