Senate Environment and Communications References Committee
26 March 2026
Speaker dots
- Speakers in the chapter
- Colour: political group
- Grey: no group
Tap or click a chapter's dots to see names and groups.
Contents updated on 21 Oct 2026
Legend
Transcript markers
- text Sentence being played
- text Search result
- text Intervention cited by the link you opened
Click a sentence to play the video from that moment. Select text to quote it with the speaker, timestamp and link.
More options
Senate Environment and Communications References Committee Australian Parliament
38:18 - 40:21
Speaker 3
Thank you. I will now declare open this fifth public hearing for the, senate environment communications reference committee's inquiry into triple zero service outages. I begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land upon which we meet and pay out respects to their elders past and present, extend that respect to any aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples here today. These are public proceedings being video livestreamed via the Parliament House website, and a hand side transcript is being made. If there's no objection, of course, for those, if there's any media in the room, they will be able to, participate and record the proceedings.
I remind all witnesses that in giving evidence to the committee, they are protected by parliamentary privilege. It's unlawful for anyone to threaten or disadvantage a witness on a, on account of evidence given to a committee, and any such action may be treated as contempt by the senate. It is also contempt to give false or misleading evidence. The committee generally prefers evidence to be given in public, but under the senate's resolutions, witnesses do have the right to be held in private session, and sometimes the committee will insist that we are held in private session. If a witness objects to answering a question, they should state the ground upon which the objection is made, and the committee will determine whether it will insist on an answer having regard to the ground upon which it is claimed.
If the committee determines to insist on an answer, a witness may request that answer be given in camera. I remind senators of their obligations under the behavior code for Australian parliamentarians to treat witnesses with dignity, courtesy, fairness, and respect. Answers to quest
On notice are due Thursday, April 2. That's next Thursday. And I now welcome representatives from the Department of Infrastructure Transport Regional Development Communications Sports and the Arts. I understand the information on parliamentary privilege, protection of witnesses, giving evidence to senate committees who's been provided to you. You've both been through this process numerous times.
The rest of the transcript is for Pro customers
Unlock the full transcript, chat, and every analysis feature with Polyfact Pro.
The video itself stays free to watch, in full, no account needed.
Start a free trial