News and politics live updates: Telstra says triple-0 services restored, SA death investigation ongoing

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says key supplies of PAC-3 Patriot interceptors would arrive from the US in the next few days.

Mr Zelenskiy said the two countries had reached a political agreement on licenses for the production of the missiles.

The Patriot is a US-made air defence system. Its PAC-3 interceptor - short for Patriot Advanced Capability-3 - is one of the few Western weapons capable of shooting down the ballistic missiles Russia has increasingly fired at Ukrainian cities.

Mr Zelenskiy, speaking to reporters after returning from a NATO summit and talks with US President Donald Trump in Turkey, also said that talks were proceeding with America on a “drone deal” or joint drone production.

Reuters

An Australian Royal Commission has torn into Elon Musk’s X platform for not engaging with the high profile probe into anti-Semitism and social cohesion after the country’s worst terror attack.

Counsel Assisting Richard Lancaster was scathing in his remarks to the Commission on Friday when he detailed the platform’s “failure” to assist the inquiry and questioned whether it should be banned in Australia.

It comes after Australia’s internet regulator used her testimony to reveal that X fought against an order to remove harrowing Bondi massacre content from the December 14 attack.

eSafetyboss Julie Inman Grant said the platform had told eSafety the footage showing murder victims at a Hanukkah celebration was “no worse than a gore movie”.

“X Corp’s conduct, both within this commission and outside of it, begs the question whether XCorp has or ought to have a social license to operate in Australia,” Mr Lancaster said.

The Australian sharemarket gained 0.6 per cent after midday on Friday.

The ASX 200 rose 48.6 points to 8811.10 just after noon.

Shares in NextDC rose almost 1 per cent to $13.96 after the company announced it was further bolstering its debt facilities as it continues to expand.

The data centre company secured new senior debt facilities of about $2.3 billion, which is up $500 million on the $1.8b of commitments announced in May.

“The upsize reflects continued strong support from a broad syndicate of domestic and international banks, following the company’s recent record increase in contracted utilisation,” NEXTDC said.

​Read the full story here.​

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced Australia will bring the Big Bash League to India for the first time, with this summer’s season opener between the Melbourne Renegades and the Perth Scorches to be played in Chennai in December.

“It will kick off a week-long G’day Namaste festival of Australian sport, culture, and business engagement,” Mr Albanese said, standing next to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

On Thursday, the two leaders signed a series of agreements, including to export more Australian uranium to India.

Telstra big boss has stopped short of confirming whether customers affected by this week’s nationwide outage will receive compensation, saying the company’s immediate focus was restoring services and rebuilding trust.

Pressed repeatedly on whether customers would be reimbursed, Ms Brady instead apologised for the disruption and acknowledged Telstra had “a job to do” to regain public confidence after the outage impacted mobile services and more than 600 failed triple-0 call attempts.

Ms Brady said any failure to connect a triple-0 call was “unacceptable”, but was forced to defend the company’s emergency response, saying backup systems and welfare checks operated as intended.

“We know we’ve got a job to do to make sure we rebuild that trust with our customers, and that comes through our actions and through delivering for them,” she said.

Telstra also maintained the outage was caused by an unexpected software defect and said further details, including any lessons from the incident, would be released once its investigation is complete.

Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady has responded to reports the company was warned about vulnerabilities in its network timing systems before this week’s nationwide outage, saying the telco regularly works with researchers, universities and industry experts to strengthen its network but the issue would form part of the company’s investigation.

“These timing synchronisation systems are well-known to be critical to a mobile network,” Ms Brady said, adding Telstra had engaged with the academic referenced in reports “on a wide range of things”.

Ms Brady also rejected suggestions that recent job cuts contributed to the outage, saying there was “no indication” Telstra’s restructuring had played a role.

Asked whether executives would forfeit bonuses over the incident, she declined to comment, saying remuneration decisions would be handled through the company’s governance processes and overseen by the board once the investigation into the outage was complete.

Telstra says Australians can once again “feel confident” calling triple-0, with chief financial officer Michael Ackland confirming the company has resolved the issue that affected some emergency calls during this week’s nationwide outage.

He said Telstra’s backup systems remain in place but welfare checks were no longer required after the fix was implemented, adding the telco believed “everything is back to normal” despite continuing to work with a small number of enterprise customers still experiencing flow-on impacts.

Mr Ackland also addressed the investigation into the death of a South Australian woman, saying Telstra was assisting police but had found “no record” of a failed triple-0 call from the phone numbers provided.

“To date, we can see no record of calls from those numbers accessing Telstra’s mobile network to call 000, and more broadly, no record of any calls from those numbers to the 000 platform,” he said.

He added that Telstra had confirmed there were no active outages affecting the area at the time and that another call from a different number was successfully connected to emergency services.

Mr Ackland said the company would continue working closely with South Australian authorities as investigations continue.

Telstra CEO Vicki Brady has apologised to Australians after the nationwide outage that disrupted mobile services, affected Triple-0 calls and caused widespread disruption, admitting the telecommunications giant had “let our customers and Australians down”.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the outage, Ms Brady said she had returned early from an overseas family holiday after learning of the incident and had been in regular contact with Communications Minister Anika Wells and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

“We have let our customers and Australians down. And, for that, I am deeply sorry,” she said.

“I understand how much Australians rely on us to keep in touch, to work, and stay safe. I also understand the broader impact on the community when services go down, from things like payments to transport.”

Ms Brady said Telstra had identified the cause of the outage and would complete a full investigation into what changes were needed to ensure it could not happen again.

“We understand what caused the issue and we will complete our investigation into the actions needed to prevent it from happening again. You have my commitment on that,” she said.

She also apologised for the impact the outage had on triple-0 services, saying the company took emergency communications “extremely seriously”, and thanked customers for their patience while staff worked around the clock to restore services.

Pressure is mounting on Telstra ahead of an expected appearance by chief executive Vicki Brady, with politicians from both sides of politics demanding answers over the nationwide outage that disrupted mobile services, affected triple-0 calls and caused widespread transport delays across Australia.

Ms Brady has reportedly returned to Sydney after cutting short an overseas holiday following the outage, but Telstra has not confirmed when she will publicly address the crisis.

Her expected appearance comes as scrutiny intensifies over how the outage unfolded and what the company will do to prevent a repeat.

Former deputy prime minister Wayne Swan was critical of the telecommunications giant’s corporate leadership, saying they needed to be financially penalised.

“There’s no question the bonuses of all the executives will be on the line,” he told Nine’s Today program.

“I’m sure the public will want to see a fair bit of accountability.”

Read more.

Police are investigating whether a death this week is linked to the nationwide Telstra outage that left thousands of Australians unable to call triple-0.

An elderly person died in a regional hospital in South Australia on Wednesday, which Liberal Senator Kerrynne Liddle said in a statement happened during the Telstra outage that morning.

“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,” her statement read.

South Australian police confirmed officers spoke to Senator Liddle and a staff member at her office on Thursday.

“As a result, contact was subsequently made with the family of an individual who died at a regional hospital on Wednesday 8 July,” SA Police said, ABC News reported.

“Police were not notified of the death. After being advised of the death, police immediately commenced an investigation into the cause and circumstances.”

The cause or circumstances surrounding the death are not known but will now be subject to investigation.

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