Communications Minister Anika Wells has described herself as “still a new minister” as she faces mounting scrutiny over Triple Zero outages that have been linked to three deaths and left thousands of Australians unable to contact emergency services.

Wells held a high-stakes meeting with Optus chief executive Stephen Rue and Singtel chief executive Yuen Kuan Moon in Sydney on Tuesday to demand an explanation, nearly two weeks after the initial catastrophic outage and after a stint in New York with the prime minister.

The minister described herself as new to the job after being asked whether she was listening more to telecommunications companies or to regulators as the government insists it is fast-tracking legislation for a Triple Zero watchdog first recommended almost a year and a half a

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