Opposition leader Angus Taylor has defended his communications spokeswoman after she made two test calls to Triple Zero during the nationwide Telstra outage.

Senator Sarah Henderson said she dialled the emergency service on Wednesday to check if the network was functioning.

Making false calls to Triple Zero is a criminal offence and can carry a maximum penalty of three years’ imprisonment.

But Henderson insists she acted in her capacity as shadow communications minister and was trying to determine whether the emergency network was operating.

‘I was simply, as the shadow minister for communications, making those initial calls to work out whether the … system was actually operating,’ she told 2GB.

‘I accept the criticism, but what I will say is that I am in a unique position holding this government to account.’

Labor ministers quickly condemned the senator’s actions, with Industry Minister Tim Ayres describing the calls as reckless.

‘I was absolutely shocked by that revelation. I just say to Australians, don’t do what she did,’ he told ABC Radio.

Sarah Henderson was criticised for making calls to Triple Zero during the Telstra outage 

Angus Taylor defended Henderson and said the government was deflecting 

‘It’s utterly irresponsible. I just don’t know why anybody would do that, but I’d certainly say nobody should follow her example.’

However, Taylor has accused the Albanese government of focusing on politics instead of responding to the outage.

He argued Henderson was forced to take matters into her own hands because ministers failed to provide information during the outage.

‘If [Communications Minister Anika Wells] hadn’t been absent for seven hours, Sarah wouldn’t have had to do these things,’ he said. 

‘These actions were not illegal and they were made necessary by complete and utter failure from this minister and that should be the focus of the press, and it should be the focus of the nation.

‘I’ve said to Sarah that she should do her job, and she was doing her job, and that’s exactly what I’ll continue to say.’ 

Wells returned from a planned leave to deal with the crisis, fronting cameras at around 2pm on Wednesday.

Minister for Emergency Management Kristy McBain released a statement on the issue at 7.45am on Wednesday.

Anika Wells (right, with Minister for Emergency Management Kristy McBain) returned from leave on Wednesday as the crisis unfolded

Other Coalition MPs have rallied behind Henderson, echoing Taylor’s defence.

‘She’s the shadow minister, she needs to know whether it works or doesn’t work… I would have thought it was reasonable,’ opposition regional communications spokesperson Anne Webster said.

‘People want to know. I mean, we’re a curious set of beings, aren’t we?’

Opposition defence spokesperson James Paterson also accused Labor of trying to distract from the outage itself.

‘This is an absolutely desperate attempt from the government to try and distract from their own failures,’ he said.

‘I understand why she did what she did. It’s certainly not an offence and, if the government was serious, [it] would have to put up or shut up here.’

The Telstra outage disrupted services nationwide, leaving millions of Australians unable to make calls, access mobile data or use electronic payment systems.

The telco said the number of welfare checks completed was higher than expected, adding the figures were likely inflated by people calling simply to test Triple Zero.

By Thursday afternoon, it had completed 639 welfare checks.

Of those, seven people required emergency assistance while 170 were referred to police for further checks or assistance.

The telco giant is also investigating a second outage that prevented customers from making calls, including to emergency services.

In an update on Thursday morning, Telstra advised customers who could not connect to Triple Zero to keep trying. 

‘If you experience any issues calling Triple Zero, please immediately retry your call,’ the telco said in a statement.

‘We have seen good success of calls connecting on retry.’