Anika Wells has cut short her holiday and held an emergency press conference after coming under fire for her radio silence during the Telstra outage, as the telco investigates whether anyone died after some people were unable to call Triple Zero.
Telstra suffered widespread network failures across the country on Wednesday morning, disrupting phone and internet services, knocking out EFTPOS systems at cafes, taxis and retailers, and forcing some businesses to close.
As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain fronted the media to criticise the outage shortly after it happened, Wells, the minister responsible for telecommunications and for holding Telstra to account, remained on annual leave.
Instead, a scheduled post promoting the government’s digital connectivity program appeared on her Facebook page before it was deleted by her social media team.
When the Daily Mail asked the Prime Minister’s Office about Wells’ absence, it defended her, insisting she was entitled to take leave like any other Australian.
More than six hours after the outage began, Wells finally responded, with her media advisers issuing a statement on her behalf.
She then cut short her holiday and called an emergency press conference following criticism from Opposition Leader Angus Taylor.
Daily Mail political editor Peter van Onselen said Wells’ belated return showed she knew the politics of her absence was becoming dangerous.
Anika Wells has cut short her holiday and held an emergency press conference after coming under fire for her radio silence during the Telstra outage
Wells shared a seemingly scheduled – and now-deleted – post about ‘strengthening connectivity’ post as the Telstra outage unfolded
‘Anika Wells can say she was entitled to be on leave, and of course ministers are allowed to take holidays. But when Triple Zero calls fail during a national Telstra outage, the minister responsible for telecommunications can’t look like a missing person in her own portfolio,’ van Onselen said.
‘Coming back from leave was the right call, but only after the wrong look had already taken hold. In politics, you don’t get to choose when your portfolio explodes.
‘The PM and Emergency Management Minister were out front while the Communications Minister was absent. That’s not a great image when the issue is a communications failure.
‘Wells is already under pressure over taxpayer-funded travel. The last thing she needed was another story about poor judgment and being slow to read the room.
‘The planned Facebook post was almost too perfect as a metaphor: the government promoting digital connectivity while the country was dealing with a major telco failure.
‘Her return was all about political damage control. She could see the missing-in-action label starting to stick if she didn’t.’
After returning to duty on Wednesday afternoon, Wells said she would continue monitoring the situation.
‘I have returned from leave. I’ll continue to monitor and act as the situation requires of me,’ she said.
Anika Wells has previously come under fire for flying her lobbyist husband around the country at the taxpayer’s expense (Anika Wells is pictured earlier this year)
Albanese said there was no evidence the Telstra outage was caused by hostile activity
‘I think any Australian would expect their Communications Minister to do that.’
Wells confirmed some emergency calls made from Telstra devices had failed during the nationwide outage.
‘These are now being investigated by Telstra, and welfare checks are in progress, as required by law,’ Wells said.
She said about three dozen welfare checks were being carried out.
Wells has faced mounting pressure to resign after she was forced to repay taxpayer-funded travel expenses for breaching the rules and also faced criticism for flying her husband to sporting events at public expense.
