Australia Briefing

Singtel Faces Fresh Optus Crisis After Fatal Outage

An Optus store in Sydney, Australia.

Photographer: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg

Good morning everyone, it’s Ben here in a brisk Melbourne, here’s what’s making headlines today.

Today’s must-reads:
• Government to review fatal Optus network outage
• New Zealand is set to appoint a female governor
• Late night host Jimmy Kimmel to return after backlash

Singapore Telecommunications faces a fresh crisis at its Australian division Optus after the government started an investigation into an emergency call outage that resulted in multiple deaths. Australian Communications Minister Anika Wells said she’ll consider any required regulatory or legislative changes once the probe into Optus’ botched network upgrade is complete.

New Zealand is set to appoint a woman to head its central bank for the first time as it seeks to refresh an institution damaged by leadership turmoil. In another twist, the new Reserve Bank of New Zealand governor is a foreigner, according to a person familiar with the matter who declined to be named discussing market-sensitive information. They wouldn’t identify the new governor.