Published: 8:45am, 3 Nov 2025Updated: 8:47am, 3 Nov 2025
The CEO of Singapore Telecommunications-owned Optus apologised to Australia’s parliament for an emergency number outage that was linked to four deaths but declined to stand down, citing a need for stability.
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Stephen Rue started in the role a year ago following a massive cyberattack and separate half-day outage which resulted in the previous CEO leaving.
On September 18, Optus said a failure of its “000” emergency line affected thousands of people and four died as a result of the inability to contact emergency services.
Rue told an Australian Senate hearing on Monday there were questions about his position but “another change of leader at this time is not what Optus needs or what our customers need”.
He added that “the disruption and uncertainty could actually set back the transformation under way and create further risks”.
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Optus announced on October 23 that its CFO Michael Venter and Chief Information Officer Mark Potter would be stepping down early next year.
