Australia news live: Telstra CEO to face parliamentary inquiry over mobile outage

Telstra’s bosses are set to be grilled over a nationwide outage that affected triple zero calls and businesses, disrupted payment systems and stopped trains in two states.

Telstra’s chief executive, Vicki Brady, will be among a group of executives who will front a parliamentary inquiry into the incident in Canberra on Friday.

The Greens communication spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, said the committee holding the probe had called an emergency hearing over the outage.

“The truth is, Telstra, just like Optus, has put their profits ahead of public safety and public service for far too long, and the law allows them to,” she told reporters at Parliament House on Thursday.

“We need better laws in place, stronger laws that protect the rights of the public, the rights of the consumer, and to force these companies to actually deliver a reliable service.”

Telstra is accepting compensation claims from affected customers and small businesses who can provide evidence to support their case.

Hanson-Young said the telco “has done the bare minimum when it comes to compensation for consumers”.

“The company should be taking responsibility, and it should be offering automatic compensation to everyone who they put in a difficult and dangerous position.”

Representatives from the Australian Communications and Media Authority and the communications department will also give evidence at the inquiry.