Jason Clare refuses to rule out China link to Telstra triple-0 outage after Barnaby Joyce claims

Education Minister Jason Clare has refused to rule out suggestions by One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce that China could be involved in the Telstra triple-0 outage, days after Beijing ratcheted up tensions with a missile test firing in the Pacific.

The national telco will face a parliamentary inquiry next week over the six-hour outage on Wednesday, which was incorrectly linked the death of one person in South Australia.

It comes after deaths were linked to an earlier triple-0 outage in September 2025.

However, Mr Joyce on Thursday questioned – without evidence – whether the blackout was linked to China.

“I don’t want to be paranoid or a conspiracy theorist, but we know there is the capacity for China to affect that sort of software and that sort of network,” he told Sky News.

The claims faced push back from Emergency Services Minister Kristy McBain and Communications Minister Anika Wells, but were mirrored by Opposition Leader Angus Taylor who said he could understand “why Australians are drawing that connection”.

“Now, I don’t know whether there’s any connection or not, I have no idea. But it’s no wonder Australians are starting to ask questions like that,” he said.

Asked about the claim, Mr Clare on Sunday would not outright dismiss it.

“Well, it pays just to take a bit of time and, you know, work out what the cause of this was,” he told Sky News.

Mr Clare noted Telstra had linked the outage to “a software bug that took the system back 20 years to back when Barnaby was part of the Howard government”.

“So, you know, with all of these things, it pays just to find out exactly what happened,” he said.

Joyce ‘doubles down’

Speaking later, Mr Joyce seized on those comments.

“I’ve just heard the minister speaking then and I didn’t hear it ruled out,” he said.

Mr Joyce said he had urged for a connection to be investigated, not that one necessarily existed.

“I think it was a reasonable question to ask … I hope it’s ruled out,” he said.

“I’m not suggesting that it is the case, but it is incumbent upon the government because of the correlation of time between other events … to say whether they can rule it out.”

Both Mr Joyce and Mr Clare criticised Liberal MPs and senators for attempting to call triple-0 during the outage, including Senator Sarah Henderson.

Mr Clare said Telstra could face fines of up to $30m, but that any penalty would only come after an inquiry by regulators.

“People could have died. Telstra has let the country down,” he said.

Earlier in the week, Telstra CEO Vicki Brady apologised for the triple-0 outage and said investigations were continuing.

She said the telco had been in constant contact with Ms Wells, the communications minister, and Anthony Albanese.