Millions of SEQ residents to face Alfred without national comms system after federal gov delays
Southeast Qld residents will be forced to rely on the overloaded and slow text message system as the 2022 floods rather than a national communications system meant to keep them alerted.
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Millions of southeast Queenslanders will face the threat of Cyclone Alfred without a national communications system meant to keep them alerted in an emergency.
The National Messaging System – which the federal government promised would be ready by the end of 2024 – has been delayed by nearly three years.
It means residents will be alerted by the same text messaging system which became overloaded and slow during the 2022 South East Queensland floods.
Gold Coast residents have already started receiving text messages from the “+61 444 444 444” phone number issuing a “Cyclone Watch & Act” for significant flooding expected to begin Thursday night.
Residents were being told to “Prepare To Take Shelter” by 6pm.
Former Labor Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said in December 2023 it was expected the NMS would be “up and running” by the end of 2024.
But it will not be operational until at least mid-2027 with a contract to build the system only awarded this month, and testing to begin in late 2026.
A spokesperson for current Emergency Management Minster Senator Jenny McAllister said the delivery of the system relied on the co-operation of telecommunication companies.
It’s understood there were protracted negotiations with telcos but they had now signed on to deliver the system.
“We came to government knowing that things needed to improve, that’s why we are investing in upgrades to telecommunication resilience, flood information systems and a National Messaging System,” the spokesperson said.
“We’re committed to delivering a National Messaging System to support states and territories to share crucial information.
“States and Territories are primarily responsible for responding to disasters as well as issuing warnings within their jurisdictions.”
The spokesperson said residents would have to rely on the federal-owned, state-run “Emergency Alert” messaging system – the same one that took up to 12 hours to send out alerts during the southeast’s 2022 disaster.
That system will work alongside other sources of information, including apps delivered by state governments, emergency broadcasting and through websites such as the Bureau of Meteorology.
A report by the Office of the Inspector-General of Emergency Management into the February to March 2022 severe weather event found that warnings they received were not timely and did not provide information that prompted residents to take appropriate actions.
It found residents felt initial messaging resulted in a “false sense of security” and in some cases “complacency”.
Shadow Communications Minister Communications Melissa McIntosh said it was “unacceptable” the NMS was not already available.
“This is another broken promise and big fail from the Albanese Labor Government in the
telecommunications space,” she said.
Shadow Emergency Management Perin Davey said she was thankful state emergency agencies hadn’t shut down their messaging systems believing the NMS would be available.
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