Thursday, 25 September - Doing it for the kids

September 25, 2025

Good morning, it’s Thursday, 25 September. In your Squiz Today…

  • Optus says human error caused last week’s deadly network outage

  • Super Typhoon Ragasa batters southern China

  • And the new Leonardo DiCaprio movie creating Oscar buzz…

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

“Real agony.”

Is how actor Sarah Jessica Parker described judging the Booker Prize, which announced its shortlist of 6 contenders yesterday. The Sex and the City star is one of 5 judges this year - and just like that, she swapped Manolos for manuscripts…

Optus in a state of emergency

The Squiz

Optus CEO Stephen Rue says human error - not technical failure - was behind last week's catastrophic Triple-0 outage that's been linked to multiple deaths. Speaking yesterday at a press conference, Rue revealed network engineers in Australia and Chennai failed to follow a critical step during routine maintenance - they didn't divert emergency calls away from the part of the network being upgraded. The result was that more than 480 emergency calls couldn't get through. Rue apologised again, saying "there are no words that can express how sorry I am about the very sad loss of the lives of 4 people". 

What's being done about it? 

Corporate veteran Dr Kerry Schott will lead an independent review (fun fact: she was on NBN's board when Rue ran that company). Meanwhile, Singapore-based parent Singtel apologised for the failure but says it's standing by Rue despite calls for his head from the Coalition and unions. As for Rue himself, he says "this is not about me ... lives have been lost." But Communications Minister Anika Wells (who's facing criticism for being in New York during the crisis…) is still pushing recommendations from Optus' last major outage in 2023, including appointing a Triple Zero Custodian to oversee the emergency call system. That still hasn't happened 18 months later...

So what next?

The hits keep coming... Beyond losing 250,000-300,000 customers after their 2023 nationwide outage, analysts predict another exodus - especially in South and Western Oz, and the Northern Territory, where this failure happened. Then add yesterday’s levelling of a $100 million fine for targeting vulnerable customers (including those with mental disabilities) with unnecessary phone plans, and you've got what Treasurer Jim Chalmers called "a disgrace that can never happen again". Former competition/consumer regulator Allan Fels says Optus' licence to operate should be reviewed, and some are calling for the company’s name to be stripped from Perth's stadium. For a telco recovering from Australia's worst cyberattack and a nationwide blackout, it’s a Triple-0 whammy that industry experts say will be hard to shake…

Smiling wide

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Squiz the Rest

Super Typhoon Ragasa moves over China

The biggest storm of the year hit the Southern Chinese mainland overnight, with nearly 2 million people evacuated from the province of Guangdong and schools, businesses and airports closing throughout the region. The storm is expected to dump a month’s worth of rain over the province in the span of a few days - meteorologists say its impact will be comparable to that of a Category 5 hurricane. Already, 17 people have died in Taiwan and another 10 in the Philippines, and many more are still missing - meanwhile, huge waves and flooding have hit Hong Kong. As we mentioned yesterday, it’s causing havoc for those travelling to and from the area, with hundreds of flights cancelled… Here’s the Smart Traveller page for China in case you want to check the latest info. 

Social media and climate in the spotlight…

PM Anthony Albanese has been busy at the United Nations General Assembly overnight, where he showcased our world-first ban on social media for under 16yos, calling on global leaders to join us in the crackdown. With him was Emma Mason, mother of 15yo Matilda ‘Tilly’ Rosewarne who took her own life after experiencing “relentless” online bullying. She says the world's 226 million children of a similar age also deserve protecting. One leader on board is European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen - she reckons our approach is "plain common sense". And after Albanese's first leaders' meeting and a quick selfie with US President Donald Trump at a cocktail party yesterday, he will use his final day in New York to talk about our new 2035 climate targets. They’re up there by world standards too… 
* Need help?

Inflation pops back up again…

…to 3% in August, up from 2.8% in July. It's now at its highest level in a year, thanks mainly to a rise in electricity bills as we detach from the teat of government energy rebates (and soz for that visual…). Electricity bills rose by 24.6% across the country, but the Bureau of Stats said that was primarily driven by Queensland, Western Oz and Tassie, where state government rebates had been keeping prices down. What about the trimmed mean, we hear you ask? That underlying rate of inflation (that cuts out all the wacky stuff on the margins) dropped to 2.6% from 2.7%. That's the number Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock says they monitor closely when assessing interest rates - it will be making that call again on Tuesday next week. 
*You know you want to learn more about how the trimmed mean works… Lucky we’ve got a Squiz Shortcut for you, don’t you think? 

Some not-so-hot sheets

After setting off a dramatic chain reaction in the sunscreen industry this year, consumer advocacy group Choice has its sights set on another household staple - laundry detergent. In results published yesterday, Choice particularly called out laundry detergent sheets - a relatively new cleaning product on the block - as often being not much better than water when it came to stain removal. Choice spokesperson Chris Barnes said while the more eco-friendly idea behind laundry sheets was good, the “execution wasn’t there yet”. As far as regular laundry detergent goes, Choice gave some bouquets to the brand Omo, saying its product line comes highly recommended (though it doesn’t come cheap). It was… let’s just say less complimentary about a range of other brands… The full results are here. 

A Leo movie creates big buzz

Oscar-watchers might want to keep a very close eye on a new film set for wide release in Oz cinemas today called One Battle After Another. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn (no strangers to Oscars, those 2…) and from Paul Thomas Anderson, the director of Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood, it’s a story about a former political revolutionary who gets drawn back into his old life years later. The critics have gone bananas for it, with more 5-star reviews than potatoes (which, as you know, is the best invention ever…) and almost universal acclaim from everyone who’s seen it. Whether that’s enough to get audiences in is another matter - despite a reported budget of over $200 million, box office tracking says it’s in danger of becoming a colossal flop. There’ll be some nervous execs in Hollywood this weekend…

Apropos of Nothing - Weird science edition

It’s always a good day when someone discovers a new dinosaur - this week, it’s the Joaquinraptor casali - a terrifying-looking, 7m-long predator found in Argentina that was discovered with an ancient crocodile bone in its mouth. So, not to be trifled with…

Over in Western Oz, locals are puzzled by a series of mysterious lights they’ve spotted in the night sky. The Perth Observatory had a bunch of reports come in, but it still doesn’t know what might be behind the phenomenon - cue the X-Files theme… 

And there’s a new tomato on the block - scientists in the US have created a new ‘grape tomato’ called the Scarlet Sunrise, which is designed to be a sort of hardy, snackable variety. With a red/yellow hue, it even looks - as Ketut said about Rhonda - like a sunrise… 

Squiz the Day

9.30am (AEST) - A case management hearing at the Federal Court for Elon Musk's X Corp lawsuit against eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant. The tech giant is arguing for an exemption from new safety regulations for harmful online content - Sydney

9.30am (AEST) - The Melbourne Royal Show begins (until 5 October) - Melbourne 

9.30am (AEST) - Sentencing for one of the 2 men charged over an arson attack on a synagogue in Newtown - Sydney

10.00am (AEST) - Nominees for the 2025 ARIA Awards will be announced. Find them here…

11.00am (AEST) - Billionaire Solomon Lew’s Premier Investments will announce its full-year results, 2 days after Myer - which it merged with this year - announced its own full-year results

5.30pm (AEST) - The opening of Newcastle Airport's new international terminal - Newcastle, NSW

ABS data releases: Australian National Accounts: Finance and Wealth, June 2025; Job Vacancies, Australia, August 2025; Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, August 2025

Birthdays for actors Catherine Zeta-Jones (1969) and her husband Michael Douglas (1944), as well as actor Will Smith (1968) and actor/rapper Donald Glover (1983)

Anniversary of: 

  • the creation of the remote control after engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo successfully guided a boat (1906)

  • the formation of U2 after student Larry Mullen Jr posted an ad at Dublin's Mount Temple Comprehensive School (1976)

  • Cathy Freeman's famous 400m Olympic win at the Sydney Olympics (2000)