Australia – Page 2 – BRIANSWORLD

'Deeply scared' woman interrupts treasurer's press conference with plea

A local resident interrupted Treasurer Jim Chalmers' press conference in Queensland to ask the government for help following a "horrific" attack on her home.

Chalmers was speaking at a media conference in the Brisbane suburb of Logan when a woman, later identified as Anoushka Arro, said she had a plea for the state's Minister for Housing Sam O'Connor.

"I recently have been the victim of an absolutely horrific, catastrophic event at my home, where the front gate was ripped off of my property onto the road," she said.

"I live in fear. I have emailed him. I have tried to get some sort of resolve for the situation I am living under.

"I have counsel who are now assisting [me] but I am not being given anything from the state government."

Arro, who previously ran as a Logan City Council candidate, claimed tenants of public housing on her street have been harassing her.

She told Chalmers she can't leave her home because she is so "deeply scared".

"I want something addressed. I am shaking because I am so fearful and scared," she added.

"I can't leave my home, this person has a network of hoons, who drive past my house."

Chalmers said he was sorry to hear the woman was going through a difficult time.

He asked for a private conversation to discuss the matter and said he would involve local MP for Nudgee Leanne Linard.

"What we'll arrange is, if we can have a private conversation and get your details, if Leanne (Linard) is your state member, we'll make sure that Leanne makes that representation to Minister O'Connor's office in the Crisafulli government, and we'll follow that up for you," he said.

"We're so sorry you are going through this very traumatic period and we will do what we can to represent you and represent your interests.

"Thank you for raising it with us."

After Chalmers responded to a question from a journalist, the woman was seen shaking and crying.

The treasurer was speaking in Brisbane about a pay bump for aged care workers.

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'The Optus brand is now in a fragile, high-risk state': Two years of hell

Two years of failures have left problem-plagued Optus with a multi-million-dollar hit to the brand's crumbling reputation, according to a public relations expert.

Sphere PR Managing Director Louise Roberts said reliability is everything to a telco and, after three triple-zero outages since 2023 and a mass data breach in 2022, Optus' brand has taken repeated blows.

"The Optus brand is now in a fragile, high-risk state," she told 9news.com.au.

"For telcos, reliability and resilience are really non-negotiables, and repeated failures will damage their credibility in ways that a single event may not have."

Roberts said the continued blunders could cost Optus millions in a loss of customers, fines, and a damaged brand reputation.

She added that there may be lawsuits from the families of the three people who died during the triple-zero outage on September 18.

"They'll risk ongoing customer churn, intensified reliability scrutiny, they're probably going to be subject to quite significant fines," Roberts said.

"Companies can recover their reputation, but I think you'll find that Optus' issues will be mentioned for years to come."

Days before the outage, a Roy Morgan survey ranked Optus as Australia's fourth most distrusted brand.

"It still has not recovered from the 2022 data breach," she said.

"Optus has really got to take a long, hard look at itself and make sure that in future, that they have not only invested in their network and resilience, but they have also revised their processes.

"They really need to demonstrate that they've made long-term structural changes."

Optus' problems started years before the first triple-zero outage earlier this month. Here is a breakdown of everything that led to today.

November 8, 2023

4am: Optus begins experiencing a nationwide outage that affects all services, including triple-zero calls and NBN.

6.47am: Optus tells customers it is aware of the issue and is working to restore services.

12.55pm: Some services begin to come back online.

4pm: Most, if not all, services are restored.

November 13, 2023

The Australian Communications and Media Authority begins an investigation into the outage.

November 17, 2023

The Optus chief executive at the time, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, appears before the Senate to field questions on the outage and how the telco responded.

She insists she is not facing internal calls to step down.

November 20, 2023

Rosmarin resigns.

"Having now had time for some personal reflection, I have come to the decision that my resignation is in the best interest of Optus moving forward," she said at the time.

She is replaced in the interim by chief financial officer Michael Venter.

January 24, 2023

Optus admits that almost 2700 triple-zero calls failed to connect, up from the initial 228 figure.

March 21, 2024

A government-commissioned review into the outage handed down its final report, making 18 recommendations to address structural issues within the broader telco system.

The federal government accepts all the recommendations.

May 6, 2024

Optus announces Stephen Rue as its new chief executive effective from November.

He is brought in to review the company and recover its reputation.

November 8, 2024

Exactly a year on from the 2023 triple-zero outage, the Australian Communications and Media Authority finds Optus failed to provide access to emergency services for 2145 people and failed to conduct 369 welfare checks on people who had tried to make an emergency call during the outage.

The telco pays a $12 million fine.

September 18, 2025

12.17am — 12.30am: Optus crews ready themselves for a firewall upgrade.

12.30am: Crews begin the upgrade.

1.30pm: Thirteen hours later, Optus becomes aware of an issue affecting triple-zero calls and works to resolve it.

3pm: Optus tells the Australian Communications and Media Authority that the outage affected 10 calls.

September 19, 2025

3.40pm: Optus tells the Australian Communications and Media Authority that the outage actually affected 100 calls.

4pm: Optus tells the Australian Communications and Media Authority that the outage restricted more than 600 triple-zero calls, and three people died.

4.40pm: Newsrooms across the country receive an email alerting them to a flash press conference.

5.45pm: Rue tells the media that three people died in a triple-zero outage – two in South Australia and one in Western Australia.

This is the first time the public hears about the outage.

7pm: South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas holds his own press conference, in which he tells the media that Optus did not tell the state about the deaths before Rue fronted the media.

He says he has not witnessed "such incompetence from an Australian corporation in respect to communications worse than this".

Police in South Australia and Western Australia also say they were unaware of the emergency service breakdown until the press conference.

September 20, 2025

Rue tells the media that a fourth death has been confirmed in Western Australia.

He reveals that two people had called Optus' customer service centres alerting them to an issue affecting triple-zero calls on September 18, but the matter was not escalated.

September 21, 2025

Rue calls another press conference, where he confirms the telco actually received at least five calls to the customer line about the outage, none of which were escalated.

"As we had not detected the triple-zero failures in our network at the time of these calls, there were no red flags for the contact centre to alert them to any live issues," he said.

South Australia Police confirm that the death of a four-month-old baby, which was initially linked to the outage, was most likely unrelated.

The death toll stands at two in Western Australia and one in South Australia.

September 22, 2025

The outage widens.

Optus says seven people were unable to contact triple-zero during the brief period the upgrade was being readied between 12.17am to 12.30am on September 18.

Communications Minister Anika Wells promises to hold the telco to account.

September 24, 2025

Rue confirms the outage was caused by human error.

Crews, comprised of Optus and third-party Nokia staff in Australia and India, had failed to follow step one of the upgrade process, which would have allowed emergency calls to be redirected through the network.

Optus commissions an independent review as its owner, Singapore-based Singtel Group, issues its first apology.

Singtel CEO Yuen Kuan Moon announces he will visit Australia the following week.

September 28, 2025

Optus experiences yet another outage that affects 4500 people in NSW's Dapto region between 3am and 12.20pm and impacts nine triple-zero calls.

Optus confirms all the people who tried to contact triple zero were okay, with several of them being accidental or test calls.

September 30, 2025

Moon meets with Wells in Australia, where she tells him to bring in external advisors to independently assess the company's plans to avoid another outage.

Speaking to reporters, Moon declined to say whether he backs Rue.

"We brought in Stephen 11 months ago to transform Optus to really address the issues that we've had since 2022 and 2023," he said.

"It is very early days, it takes time to transform a company."

Where to now?

Optus has commissioned an internal review, and the Australian Communications and Media Authority is investigating.

Wells hints that there may be a wider review into the telco industry and emergency service network.

More sunscreens pulled as TGA reveals results as low as SPF4

More sunscreens have been temporarily pulled from sale or paused from supply over sun protection claim concerns, bringing the total number of affected sunscreens currently off the market to 18.

The nation's medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), issued the advice yesterday while revealing six more products had been voluntarily removed from its register in the past two weeks.

It's the latest chapter in the saga sparked by a June Choice report that claimed more than a dozen popular sunscreens "failed" to meet their own SPF claims.

The TGA yesterday said it had received preliminary test results on the base formulation used in Ultra Violette Lean Screen SPF50+ and an export-only variant – both of which the company voluntarily recalled in August – and 19 other products from 13 other companies.

Those tests found the formula was unlikely to have an SPF of more than 21 and "may, for at least some of the goods, be as low as SPF four".

The TGA said manufacturer Wild Child Laboratories had stopped manufacturing and supplying the base formulation but each sunscreen company would be carrying out its own tests.

"The TGA is considering whether to take regulatory action with respect to those sunscreens," it said.

"Each company is provided with an opportunity to respond to any proposed regulatory action before the TGA makes a decision."

The TGA also issued a warning about UK-based testing laboratory Princeton Consumer Research, saying it had "significant concerns" about the reliability of its tests.

It said "many" companies using the Wild Child-made base formula had – before being told of the regulator's concerns – relied on tests performed by PCR to support their SPF claims.

Wild Child Laboratories said the TGA had confirmed "no manufacturing issues were identified at our facility that could explain variability in SPF testing results" and said the discrepancies were "part of a broader, industry-wide issue".

"We understand the TGA has raised concerns about testing undertaken by PCR Corp and is conducting an ongoing investigation," chief executive Tom Curnow told 9news.com.au in a statement.

"Wild Child has ceased using PCR and initiated confirmatory testing with other accredited, independent laboratories to validate the SPF performance of our products.

"We remain committed to transparency, product safety, and supporting the introduction of more consistent and objective SPF testing standards across Australia."

The TGA said it had written to PCR but had not received a response.

In a statement to 9News.com.au Princeton Consumer Research said it "conducts sunscreen testing in good faith, to recognised industry standards, on the specific samples provided to us by sponsors at the time of testing".

The TGA yesterday released a list of sunscreens using the same base formulation.

It stated that where the company responsible for a sunscreen has decided to cancel or recall the affected goods, it is working to support them in doing so.

It also advised consumers who purchased a product from the list that they may wish to consider using an alternative product until the TGA completes its review.

Skincare brand Naked Sundays yesterday said it had commissioned more independent testing for its Collagen Glow Mineral Sunscreen, which uses the same base formula but wasn't tested in the Choice report.

"Preliminary results for Collagen Glow have now been provided to the TGA, confirming our variant provides high sun protection, poses no concern, and we will await further guidance from the regulator," it said.

"Naked Sundays partners with various manufacturers in the US and Australia, and no other Naked Sundays products in Australia and or worldwide are impacted," the company said.

"Naked Sundays is working closely with the TGA to ensure we uphold the highest standards for all our products, and we will adopt any new testing requirements that the TGA may impose as soon as they are in place."

Of the 21 products sharing the same base formulation, only two remain on the market in Australia: Allganics Light Sunscreen SPF50+ and GlindaWand The Fountain of Youth Environmental Defence Cream SPF50+.

The others have all been either voluntarily recalled and cancelled from the regulator's register or temporarily pulled from sale.

You can find a full and regularly updated list of the sunscreens using the Wild Child base formulation on the TGA website.

Princeton Consumer Research statement

Princeton Consumer Research conducts sunscreen testing in good faith, to recognised industry standards, on the specific samples provided to us by sponsors at the time of testing. Our studies are performed by trained professionals following written, validated protocols and rigorous quality controls. Over many years we have tested thousands of product samples for global clients using established methods designed to estimate SPF and related claims.

Sunscreen performance measured in a laboratory reflects the exact batch and condition of the sample submitted at that moment. Multiple factors outside the laboratory — such as manufacturing variability between batches, raw-material differences, packaging, storage conditions, product age, and in-market handling — can influence the SPF of products sold later. Testing is therefore one part of a broader quality and regulatory process that includes manufacturing controls, stability programs, and post-market surveillance by brands and regulators.

We can only speak to the data we generated on the samples we tested; we cannot opine on any subsequently manufactured or sold product that we did not test.