000 (emergency telephone number)

Operated by Telstra and overseen by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA),[3] it is intended only for use in life-threatening or time-critical emergencies.

[1] When called on a mobile or satellite phone, the international standard emergency telephone number 112 will be redirected to Triple Zero (000).

For non-life-threatening situations and natural disasters, the State Emergency Service (SES) number 132 500 should be called instead.

In 1961, the Postmaster-General's Department started introducing the 000 telephone number in major population centres, and during the 1960s, extended its coverage to nationwide.

[8] Today, the Triple Zero service is operated and maintained by Telstra, a former branch of Postmaster-General's Department and Australia's former national telecommunications company.

They operate three State Emergency Communications Centres, located in Williams Landing, East Burwood, and Ballarat.

A subsequent investigation recommended that a temporary recorded announcement be implemented during extreme events to assure callers that their calls were being connected and a delay may occur.

[16] This is not to be confused with the standard "You have dialled Emergency Triple Zero, your call is being connected" recorded voice announcement (RVA), which was introduced in 2008.

Telstra also activated the generic extreme event recorded voice announcement "You have dialled Emergency Triple Zero.

Callers in a queue waiting for a Telstra agent to answer the phone were played an RVA every 30 seconds in the following terms, "You have dialled the Emergency Triple Zero number.

Due to an unprecedented high volume of calls being received by Triple Zero, we are experiencing short delays in answering.

In 2010, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) began researching options that may provide improved location information for mobile services when dialling 000.

In 2013, an emergency service smartphone app was produced and developed by Fire and Rescue NSW and the Triple Zero Awareness Working Group.

[22] In 2017–2018, ACMA stated in their annual report that both Industry and Government had begun to make considerable investment to communications infrastructure.

[23] This includes a privacy report for implementing the Advanced Mobile Location (AML) standard for Triple Zero calls.

[27] Emergency services, specifically the NSW Ambulance Service Triple Zero call centre, were accused of inappropriately handling Iredale's calls; he was not given any medical advice, and operators were accused of being "preoccupied" with obtaining a street address to send help to, although Iredale was in the bush.

An inquest set up to investigate failings in the 000 system as a result of his death identified serious issues in the practices used by 000 operators.

[30] In April 2014, telecommunications company TPG was fined A$400,000 for withholding access to emergency numbers where customers had failed to pay their bills.