Telstra experienced a nationwide outage affecting phone services and online payments. This disruption prompted criticism from Australia's Communications Minister Anika Wells.

Communications Minister Anika Wells accused Barnaby Joyce and Angus Taylor of making premature and unfounded links between Telstra outages and China, while Kristy McBain criticized Sarah Henderson for 'testing' the Triple-zero system during the blackout.

Australian Communications Minister Anika Wells has repaid over $10,000 in incorrect travel claims, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejecting calls for her resignation and stating she had done the right thing.