Legislative Council, Tuesday 8 April 2025

Ms FORREST question to LEADER of the GOVERNMENT in the LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, Mrs HISCUTT

It is an interesting answer, that one. Along a similar line, with regard to emergency management and communication during emergencies:

(1) What departmental directive and/or Tasmanian state legislation prohibits local emergency services speaking to, informing or providing on the ground latest factual real-time updates to the local broadcaster, particularly in isolated communities?

(2) Why is this not considered crucial in an emergency such as a bushfire when all other states' position is to have localised on-the-ground updates provided directly to community radio stations as per the recommendations from the Australian Government inquiry Section 4 responding responsibly, the role of radio in emergency situations?

(3) Is it possible for the emergency services to allow spokespersons on the ground - on King Island, in this case - to provide information to the local media, noting a recent bushfire at Sea Elephant has shown that the Tasmania Fire Service put out one message and that it was not updated for 10 hours? Local authorities could have informed residents about road closures and what was put in place and given regular updates on the firefighting operations. If so, would it be possible to also allow King Island Radio together with the council to set up a King Island emergency page on social media, a control page which provided the right information and which was updated regularly. During the Sea Elephant fire, residents published posts on the local notice board, which often caused confusion and raised many questions.

ANSWER

Mr President, I have some quite lengthy and detailed answers here. I will work my way through them.

1. The Tasmanian Emergency Management Arrangements (TEMA), established under the Emergency Management Act 2006, provides for the governance, legal and administrative frameworks that apply to emergency management in Tasmania, as outlined in the last answer.

The TEMA outlines the arrangements and approved mechanisms for public information and warnings during response. The communications related arrangements, processes and systems are frequently reviewed and exercised during the preparedness phase to ensure that the arrangements, processes and systems are fit for purpose; that there are sufficient personnel trained to adequately manage the critical public information and warnings functions during responses; and that the arrangements, processes and systems are well understood broadly across the emergency management sector.

The key feature of response is the provision of timely warnings calls to action and information to enable the community to protect themselves. In the response context, the incident controller is responsible for ensuring the timely issuance of warnings and the public information and warnings (PI & W). There is a little bit of repetition from the last question, but it is pertinent. It is an essential component of the incident management team.

The PI & W is provided with intelligence from the ground and other information that is used to inform the warning or the call to action relevant to the prevailing circumstances and applied to an identified geographical area that may be, or is being, impacted by the incident. The warnings are issued via TasALERT.

And, I was going to mention it last time, but, as an aside, if anybody has not got that app downloaded on their phone, it is very advantageous to do so.

Back to the answer, operational related public information is also prepared and released by the PI & W and should be regarded as the approved primary source of truth. As I said before, ABC Local Radio is the Tasmanian emergency broadcaster that relays information prepared by the PI & W team and is approved by the incident control.

2. As above, specifically regarding the function and role of the PI & W team during response and that the Tasmania community is advised to continue to listen to ABC Local Radio for the most up-to-date and accurate information relating to the incident. ABC Local Radio is a primary source of the truth for the community, as was referred to in sections 4.5, 4.10 and 4.2 of chapter 4 of the Australian Government inquiry Responding Responsibly.

The Tasmanian Fire Service public information coordinator has contacted King Island Community Radio to have them included in the TasALERT distribution for any alerts and warnings.

3. It is vital that warnings and operational related public information is informed by intelligence prepared for, and approved by, the incident controller to ensure issuance in a timely manner and consistency. A bushfire advice for Sea Elephant Road and surrounds, Stay Informed, was published on TasALERT at 10.19 a.m. on 2 May 2025 and removed at 2.59 p.m. on 2 May 2025. The warning was also published to the TasALERT Facebook and X and shared into the Tasmanian Fire Service Facebook page.

Ms Forrest - I do not reckon many people on King Island use X.

Mrs HISCUTT
3. [contd.] Warnings will be issued with set calls to action that are tailored to the emergency and will describe the location, estimated impact of the threat, and other relevant community information. Additional distribution channels include Facebook and X depending on the warning level and the threat.

Emergency alert, the national telephone warning system, news media, community liaison, community meetings and doorknocking will be considered.

4. TasALERT and ABC Radio are the mechanisms through which timely and accurate warnings and public information is disseminated. Social media posts coordinated by the response management authority, for example, the Tasmanian Fire Service That contained details of warning and public information can be shared. However, it is essential that information contained in original post is not amended or changed in any manner.