Australia's Communications Minister, Anika Wells, has been criticised for staying silent while a major Telstra network outage cut off millions of customers from phone calls, mobile data and electronic payments. The failure disrupted internet and phone services, knocked out EFTPOS systems at cafes, taxis and shops, and forced some businesses to close. As the minister responsible for telecommunications and for holding Telstra to account, Wells's absence while on annual leave — even as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese fronted the media to criticise the outage — drew sharp attention.

Adding to the controversy, a scheduled Facebook post promoting the government's digital connectivity programme appeared on her account during the crisis before being deleted by her social media team. Wells, who has previously faced scrutiny over taxpayer-funded travel expenses, eventually responded more than six hours after the outage began, following demands from Opposition Leader Angus Taylor that she return from leave immediately. The stakes were heightened by Telstra investigating whether anyone died after being unable to reach the Triple Zero emergency line.