Sharri Markson: Joining me now to discuss this is Shadow Communications Minister, Sarah Henderson. Sarah, how can the inquiry into the terror attack shut out the voices of the victims when, as I just said, their testimony can go through a legal process?
Senator Henderson: Sharri, good evening. I understand the principle of not prejudicing a criminal trial, so the commissioner has made a very important point but I am surprised. And I’m not going to step into the shoes of the commissioner and pretend that I know more about the legal matters that she is confronting – but I am surprised because I would have thought that if there is open evidence which may prejudice a criminal trial, there might be an option for her to take that evidence in camera or there might be matters that the victims’ families or survivors may wish to raise which don’t go directly to the matters being heard by the criminal court.
So it is surprising and I hope that there might be an opportunity for Commissioner Bell to perhaps review her position and to consider ways that the voices of the victims’ families and the survivors can be heard.
Sharri Markson: Someone said to me, we should just submit our entire documentary because you had Matilda’s parents saying that the two years of antisemitism, I mean you all heard it this week, Matilda’s father say the two years of antisemitism, the Albanese government he feels is directly responsible for what happened at Bondi. I mean this is crucial evidence for the Royal Commissioner to hear that. You know, at the moment none of that will be examined in the Royal Commission.
Now just moving on to another topic Sarah, there’s been new figures today in The Australian, they’ve exposed the gender wage gap at the public broadcaster at the ABC. It said that men now earn more than 10 per cent higher than their female colleagues. So Sarah, how does the ABC compare to other companies when it comes to the wage gap?
Senator Henderson: Well, Sharri, the ABC is well outside the target range of plus or minus 5 per cent and so I have asked the question, why are men paid so much more than women at the ABC? I think the ABC does need to provide a full explanation but this goes to transparency and for a number of years, I have been calling on the ABC to be transparent about people who are paid at a high level at the ABC.
There’s a very significant transparency scheme run by the BBC that was put in place in 2021 and every reporter or content maker over a particular threshold is required to disclose their salary band, any other gifts they receive, any other benefits that they receive. And so the people of the UK can have proper trust in the transparency of the BBC journalists.
We don’t have a similar scheme in Australia. I’ve prosecuted the case for a very long time and I would like to see much more transparency in that respect, Sharri, because let’s not forget, the ABC receives more than $1.2 billion of taxpayer funds every single year and I think it is incumbent on our national broadcaster to be as transparent as it possibly can be. But of course, when it comes to these issues, we never see the government taking a stand fighting for the Australian taxpayer and that is very disappointing.
Sharri Markson; You remember there was the Optus outage in September last year where there was a triple zero outage. It was absolutely catastrophic. Well today’s Senate inquiry heard extraordinary evidence about this. The independent investigator called it a culture of carelessness.
Excerpt of triple zero hearing:
Senator Henderson: Speaking about this culture of carelessness, would you say, in fact that that means there is a deeply concerning culture of negligence, given that we are talking about issues of life and death?
Dr Kerry Schott: “It is deeply concerning and it was deeply concerning. Yes Optus is trying to work it out and is certainly trying to do the right thing and correct these problems. It’s a cultural issue which will take some time. It’s a culture that I can understand how it crept up and happened but it is unforgivable and must be fixed.
Sharri Markson: So, Sarah, just quickly, what do you think was the heart of the problem here?
Senator Henderson: Well, Sharri, I initiated the Senate inquiry into the Optus outage and as we know, at least two people died catastrophically last September because the government was simply not doing what it should be doing and ensuring that Optus and other telcos are properly held to account, also the regulator. And I think we’ve also seen damning evidence where the government has not managed issues like the 3G shut down.
We know, of course, many devices could not connect to triple zero as a result of that shutdown. So there is a real mess with our triple zero system. Australians need to know that in times of emergency, Sharri, they can call triple zero and get the help they need. And of course, in many cases, last September with Optus customers, they couldn’t do that. The results were catastrophic and Optus has conceded today, and they do agree, they have really deeply embedded cultural issues. Many things went wrong.
We even heard today, Sharri, there were processes in place that Optus executives and Optus divisions were simply not following. There was a 40-page risk management or crisis management manual that no one could even follow because it was so complex. So Optus has got a lot of hard work to do but frankly, so has the government in terms of putting in place the regulatory framework. We need to know that Australians can dial triple zero in their times of need.
Sharri Markson: Yeah, absolutely crucial. I mean most basic requirement, really of a telco. Alright Sarah Henderson, thank you for your time.