Interview with Jaynie Seal, Sky News Regional

JAYNIE SEAL: More than 24 hours after the Optus network shutdown across the country, affecting around 10 million customers, the telco giant still hasn't given an official explanation for what went wrong. Well, joining me live is Regional Development Minister Kristy McBain. Minister, thanks so much for your time. What a day it was. So, much disruption, but still we're not really getting the answers that people are needing.

KRISTY MCBAIN: That's right. It was unclear for millions of Australians yesterday what had happened to their phone coverage, what had happened to their internet coverage. For so many small businesses across the regions, that's a day's lost trade, which is significant, especially in the current times that we're in. We had parents not being able to contact their kids. We had people who had vital medical equipment being unable to get help. Obviously, those landlines not being able to call emergency services was a huge issue right across the country. There are serious questions for Optus to answer here and most significantly, why they didn't come out and give people more information. In the absence of information comes speculation and Optus should have been on the front foot communicating with the country and its customers in particular, as early as possible.

SEAL: Yeah. And do you think they should be getting refunds or more? I mean, I know that you're saying that we need to know more answers, but I guess customers are certainly saying that they do want refunds.

MCBAIN: Absolutely. It's now on Optus to come out and explain what they're going to do to remedy this situation - especially for those small business owners who've effectively lost a day's trade. My colleague, Minister Rowland, has now announced that she'll ask the Department of Communications to set up an inquiry into this, because we don't want to see this happening to people. We all understand that there are technical issues that happen, but we also understand that we don't want to see this happen again. A review into what has happened needs to take place, and I look forward to that continuing.

SEAL: Yeah, and I guess it's posing the question. A lot of people are saying they did have a bit of spare cash in their wallet, which not many people do these days, and that's sort of being looked at as well. Not so much going cashless.

MCBAIN: For so many people, the easy option is to tap your phone or use a card. A lot of people are now reconsidering those options, especially if we're going to see more of this happening. I can only say again, this is a nightmare for small businesses when they're trying to make it as easy as possible for customers to utilise their services or buy their goods, and hoping that they've got the adequate solution. Yesterday was a major pain for a lot of business owners who were without one of those cash solutions because Optus telco was down for the entire day. It's ridiculous.

SEAL: Well, let's turn to a different topic and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been to Washington, DC. China announced building relations with Pacific Island leaders across the Cook Islands. How are the trips going? Do you think they have been as successful as some people are saying?

MCBAIN: It's incredibly important that we engage with all of our international neighbours. We can see right now in the geopolitical state of the world that it's really important to build those relationships with different countries. We need to work with those countries, not only in our own national interests. We've already seen, with the dropping of tariffs this year in China, our exports now reaching $6 billion this year. Last year it was only $800 million. The work that colleagues like Don Farrell, Murray Watt and especially the Prime Minister have been doing has resulted in a significant increase in trade to China. We also need to work with those countries, in many cases, to get Australian citizens back home. The geopolitical state of the world means that we need to make sure that we are working closely with our allies and also letting other countries know when we absolutely disagree with them and we will not back their ideas or solutions for things. It’s really good that the Prime Minister is back on the world stage and Australia is now considered a significant trading partner and significant ally for a lot of those countries.

SEAL: All right, well, we do have to wrap it up there, but always great to see you. Regional Development Minister Kristy McBain. Talk to you again same time next week.

MCBAIN: Thanks, Jaynie. Have a great day