Sussan Ley is on the defensive offensive today (a special move by politicians about to lose their leadership) where she is trying to keep the focus on the 000 failure and Communications minister Anika Wells, but in doing so, keeps the stories about her fractured party alive and well with more quotes denying there are any issues.

ABC News Breakfast kindly gave her some time to speak her Optus lines first up:

We are asking the Government what on earth is going on when they are supervising a system because the regulator sits within the department of communications and when lives are on the line, you don’t side with the telcos. You don’t jet off to New York. You don’t cover up your failures. These are three things the Communications Minister has actually done. And I was bewildered yesterday in Parliament. We’ve asked many questions, because why wouldn’t the minister support a parliamentary inquiry to find out what is going on in the 000 system? This is 2025. Not 1925. Australians deserve answers. People have died. The minister has pointed the finger at everyone but the processes that she, as minister, is responsible for. So we are asking the questions of this government because ultimately it’s their responsibility.

So a few things here: Wells has not ‘sided with the telcos’. She went to New York with parents who had lost their children to suicide to talk about the government’s social media age verification laws, which the opposition had pushed for and the cover up appears to be more of a f*ck up. There is no evidence things were “covered” up, just that no one really knew what to do for 24-48 hours and a lot of mistakes were made.

There is a story here, and there are questions to be asked. But as usual, Ley focuses on the politics, not the practical and that’s why people tune out.