Shadow Minister Defends Test Call to Triple Zero Amidst Broader Political Debate

Shadow Regional Communications Minister Anne Webster says she thought it was "reasonable" for Sarah Henderson to test call Triple Zero.

The shadow communications minister yesterday said she test called Triple Zero twice out of concern for a potential outage. Henderson has rejected that she broke the law.

Asked if she thinks it was right for Henderson to test call, Webster says the shadow minister needed to know if the system was working.

Speaking to ABC Radio National Breakfast, Webster says it didn't occur to her to check whether Triple Zero was connecting.

"I mean she's the shadow minister, she needs to know whether it works or doesn't work," Webster says.

"I would have thought that it was reasonable, whether it's reasonable for everybody to do the same.

"I think people want to know. I mean we're a curious set of beings, aren't we? That if we have had cause particularly in the past maybe to call Triple Zero, and given the failures of Optus and Telstra in the past, then people want to know that it's going to work for them. It is a natural process."

Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie is advocating for "a third way" beyond the political debate on Australia's multiculturalism versus One Nation's push for a monoculture, rejecting both terms as politically loaded.

The West Australian MP told 7.30 last night the current debate was "divisive" and "unhelpful".

"You've got the woke right pushing for monoculturalism. You've got the woke left pushing for multiculturalism. I sit with most sensible mainstream Australians somewhere in the centre. I think there is a third way," he said.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has called for Australia to reject multiculturalism and embrace monoculturalism at an address to the National Press Club. She later told the Senate that the Socceroos represent her vision of a monocultural Australia.

But Hastie says it should be about subscribing to common values and institutions.

"It doesn't matter where you're from or what colour your skin is. If you sign up to our shared language, which is English, our shared institutions like parliament and the rule of law or our judiciary, and if you sign up to our shared symbol, that is the Australian national flag, then you're Australian," he said.

The son of a pastor, Hastie says his early years in inner-west Sydney still inform his vision for the future fabric of Australian society.

"There were people from different countries, but bound together by a common faith, common values and a common institution. That's what multiculturalism means to me," he said.

"But there are people who would advocate for multiculturalism where we balkanize and ghetto-ise our country where people are able to opt out of our language. They're able to opt out of our institutions. They're able to opt out of our symbols. And I reject that as much as I reject those who insist on a monoculturalism, which is sort of based in ethnicity."

Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth and Liberal senator Andrew Bragg have gone head-to-head on Channel Nine over the Telstra outage.

Liberal frontbencher Bragg says the country is on the "highway to hell" and telecommunications outages have become the "new normal" under the government.

He says the government has a "socialist-style approach" that doesn't incentivise competition and innovation.

"It happened last year, it's happened this year, it's happened every year under you guys. Every year there's these problems now," Bragg says.

Rishworth says it's a "ridiculous thing to say" and that the obligation to ensure reliable connectivity lies with Telstra.

She says Telstra is a private company and needs to explain itself. The minister asks if Bragg is arguing for less oversight.

"To somehow suggest that it's not their obligation and their responsibility to fix is, quite frankly, letting them off the hook," Rishworth says.