Leader of The Nationals WA, Shane Love MLA, has slammed the Minister for Emergency Services as appalling for using Parliament to dismiss and belittle the very real fear, disruption and suffering experienced by Mid West communities, as bushfires continue to burn across the electorate.
Mr Love said while more than 11,000 people remain without power three days after a well-forecast weather event it was unacceptable for the Minister to downplay the scale and seriousness of Emergency Services system failures while regional Western Australians were living through an ongoing emergency.
“During Question Time, I sought answers about the simultaneous failure of critical ICT and emergency management systems over the past three days,” Mr Love said.
“Instead of accountability, the Minister chose to dismiss these failures and outrageously suggest they are not a matter of public concern.”
“What greater concern could there possibly be for regional Western Australians than knowing the very systems meant to protect their lives, families, businesses and properties failed when they were needed most?”
Mr Love said the failure of the Emergency WA app was deeply troubling, particularly given the Government’s repeated assurances about its reliability.
“The Cook Labor Government has spent $16 million developing this app and spent the past three weeks urging Western Australians to download it and rely on it as their primary source of emergency information,” he said.
“Yet on Monday, while multiple significant fires were burning across both metropolitan and regional Western Australia, the Emergency WA app was down and unavailable for more than two hours.”
“The Government has boasted that this app delivers the fastest and most reliable access to alerts and warnings across the State. That claim simply does not stack up when the system collapses at the exact moment people need it most.”
Shadow Minister for Emergency Services, Rob Horstman MLC, said the failures were widespread and left both Mid West residents and frontline emergency personnel without critical tools during an active emergency.
“The failure of the Automatic Vehicle Locator system, a Royalties for Regions-funded firefighter safety initiative, is particularly concerning.”
“AVL provides live tracking of fire appliances, a vital duress function when radios or phones fail, and enables communications centres to deploy resources effectively.” Mr Horstman said.
“That this system was unavailable at the height of operations is a serious firefighter safety issue and demands immediate investigation.”
Mr Horstman said frontline responders were also unable to access dedicated emergency communications channels when attempting to request urgent resources for properties under imminent threat.
“On top of that, the State’s radio network became unmanageable. Western Australia relies on a single control channel, which was overwhelmed as additional regional centres such as Albany, Geraldton, Kalgoorlie and Bunbury were brought online,” he said.
“Even routine operational messages could not get through. That is completely unacceptable.”
Mr Horstman said the scale and breadth of the failures pointed to a clear lack of preparedness, despite ample warning of the weather event.
“The Minister must stop dismissing these failures and urgently explain how this happened, what went wrong, and how the Government will ensure it never happens again,” he said.