❓ Mr. Simpson asks about WA's early alert system for bushfires following the Victorian fires. Mr. Johnson details the State Alert system, its cost-effectiveness, capabilities, and collaboration with federal government for database access.
AnsweredQoN 172Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
BUSHFIRES — EARLY ALERT SYSTEM
The tragic bushfires in Victoria have raised serious concerns about an effective early warning system for the community so that people are kept well informed of a situation developing. In my electorate of Darling Range people are naturally concerned about the threat of bushfires. Can the minister tell the house what is being done in Western Australia to help implement an early alert system? Mr R.F. JOHNSON
The tragic bushfires in Victoria have raised serious concerns about an effective early warning system for the community so that people are kept well informed of a situation developing. In my electorate of Darling Range people are naturally concerned about the threat of bushfires. Can the minister tell the house what is being done in Western Australia to help implement an early alert system? Mr R.F. JOHNSON
AnswerView source ↗
Early today this house expressed its very deep sympathy to the victims of the dreadful fires in Victoria. I do not think this is a time to start trying to score political points. What we need to do as a government is to focus on preventive measures to try to ensure this sort of disaster does not claim the lives of people in Western Australia. As it happens, WA has actually done quite a lot in terms of an early alert warning system. Indeed, we lead the nation in this area. My predecessor in the previous government helped start the ball rolling on this and I am happy at the outset to acknowledge his work in this area. WA Police and the Fire Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia have jointly developed a system known as State Alert. This is the cheapest and probably the most effective system of its kind in Australia. It is a cost-effective option; it has no peer. It cost $460 000 to develop and will cost about $300 000 a year to operate, compared with the multimillion-dollar Telstra system. I have seen the system operate and have taken part in a trial. I was very impressed with its capabilities. State Alert is a web-based system that can be set up quickly and effectively. A limited trial of the system was successfully conducted here in WA in March 2007. It can send a voice and/or SMS message directly to affected communities to alert people to impending danger and emergency. It is also capable of sending messages via landline, mobile phone, email, fax and USB systems. Last month I wrote to the federal Attorney General asking if he could expedite the changes that were needed to allow Western Australia to access the integrated public number database. We needed that to be able to put our operation of State Alert into action. I was delighted with the response from the federal Attorney General. He said that he would expedite an amendment to the legislation. As an interim measure, he has allowed us to have temporary access to the database. Both FESA and the WA Police deserve our applause for their fantastic work on developing this system. This is too important an issue to play politics with. I know all of us at the local, state and federal levels want to see the best results for our people. I acknowledge the particular concerns of the member for Darling Range in his question today. I am confident that we will soon have an effective and potentially life-saving early alert system in place in WA.
Mr R.F. JOHNSON replied: Early today this house expressed its very deep sympathy to the victims of the dreadful fires in Victoria. I do not think this is a time to start trying to score political points. What we need to do as a government is to focus on preventive measures to try to ensure this sort of disaster does not claim the lives of people in Western Australia. As it happens, WA has actually done quite a lot in terms of an early alert warning system. Indeed, we lead the nation in this area. My predecessor in the previous government helped start the ball rolling on this and I am happy at the outset to acknowledge his work in this area. WA Police and the Fire Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia have jointly developed a system known as State Alert. This is the cheapest and probably the most effective system of its kind in Australia. It is a cost-effective option; it has no peer. It cost $460 000 to develop and will cost about $300 000 a year to operate, compared with the multimillion-dollar Telstra system. I have seen the system operate and have taken part in a trial. I was very impressed with its capabilities. State Alert is a web-based system that can be set up quickly and effectively. A limited trial of the system was successfully conducted here in WA in March 2007. It can send a voice and/or SMS message directly to affected communities to alert people to impending danger and emergency. It is also capable of sending messages via landline, mobile phone, email, fax and USB systems. Last month I wrote to the federal Attorney General asking if he could expedite the changes that were needed to allow Western Australia to access the integrated public number database. We needed that to be able to put our operation of State Alert into action. I was delighted with the response from the federal Attorney General. He said that he would expedite an amendment to the legislation. As an interim measure, he has allowed us to have temporary access to the database. Both FESA and the WA Police deserve our applause for their fantastic work on developing this system. This is too important an issue to play politics with. I know all of us at the local, state and federal levels want to see the best results for our people. I acknowledge the particular concerns of the member for Darling Range in his question today. I am confident that we will soon have an effective and potentially life-saving early alert system in place in WA.
Early today this house expressed its very deep sympathy to the victims of the dreadful fires in Victoria. I do not think this is a time to start trying to score political points. What we need to do as a government is to focus on preventive measures to try to ensure this sort of disaster does not claim the lives of people in Western Australia. As it happens, WA has actually done quite a lot in terms of an early alert warning system. Indeed, we lead the nation in this area. My predecessor in the previous government helped start the ball rolling on this and I am happy at the outset to acknowledge his work in this area. WA Police and the Fire Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia have jointly developed a system known as State Alert. This is the cheapest and probably the most effective system of its kind in Australia. It is a cost-effective option; it has no peer. It cost $460 000 to develop and will cost about $300 000 a year to operate, compared with the multimillion-dollar Telstra system. I have seen the system operate and have taken part in a trial. I was very impressed with its capabilities. State Alert is a web-based system that can be set up quickly and effectively. A limited trial of the system was successfully conducted here in WA in March 2007. It can send a voice and/or SMS message directly to affected communities to alert people to impending danger and emergency. It is also capable of sending messages via landline, mobile phone, email, fax and USB systems. Last month I wrote to the federal Attorney General asking if he could expedite the changes that were needed to allow Western Australia to access the integrated public number database. We needed that to be able to put our operation of State Alert into action. I was delighted with the response from the federal Attorney General. He said that he would expedite an amendment to the legislation. As an interim measure, he has allowed us to have temporary access to the database. Both FESA and the WA Police deserve our applause for their fantastic work on developing this system. This is too important an issue to play politics with. I know all of us at the local, state and federal levels want to see the best results for our people. I acknowledge the particular concerns of the member for Darling Range in his question today. I am confident that we will soon have an effective and potentially life-saving early alert system in place in WA.
WA Police and the Fire Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia have jointly developed a system known as State Alert. This is the cheapest and probably the most effective system of its kind in Australia. It is a cost-effective option; it has no peer. It cost $460 000 to develop and will cost about $300 000 a year to operate, compared with the multimillion-dollar Telstra system. I have seen the system operate and have taken part in a trial. I was very impressed with its capabilities. State Alert is a web-based system that can be set up quickly and effectively. A limited trial of the system was successfully conducted here in WA in March 2007. It can send a voice and/or SMS message directly to affected communities to alert people to impending danger and emergency. It is also capable of sending messages via landline, mobile phone, email, fax and USB systems. Last month I wrote to the federal Attorney General asking if he could expedite the changes that were needed to allow Western Australia to access the integrated public number database. We needed that to be able to put our operation of State Alert into action. I was delighted with the response from the federal Attorney General. He said that he would expedite an amendment to the legislation. As an interim measure, he has allowed us to have temporary access to the database. Both FESA and the WA Police deserve our applause for their fantastic work on developing this system. This is too important an issue to play politics with. I know all of us at the local, state and federal levels want to see the best results for our people. I acknowledge the particular concerns of the member for Darling Range in his question today. I am confident that we will soon have an effective and potentially life-saving early alert system in place in WA.
Both FESA and the WA Police deserve our applause for their fantastic work on developing this system. This is too important an issue to play politics with. I know all of us at the local, state and federal levels want to see the best results for our people. I acknowledge the particular concerns of the member for Darling Range in his question today. I am confident that we will soon have an effective and potentially life-saving early alert system in place in WA.
Mr R.F. JOHNSON replied: Early today this house expressed its very deep sympathy to the victims of the dreadful fires in Victoria. I do not think this is a time to start trying to score political points. What we need to do as a government is to focus on preventive measures to try to ensure this sort of disaster does not claim the lives of people in Western Australia. As it happens, WA has actually done quite a lot in terms of an early alert warning system. Indeed, we lead the nation in this area. My predecessor in the previous government helped start the ball rolling on this and I am happy at the outset to acknowledge his work in this area. WA Police and the Fire Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia have jointly developed a system known as State Alert. This is the cheapest and probably the most effective system of its kind in Australia. It is a cost-effective option; it has no peer. It cost $460 000 to develop and will cost about $300 000 a year to operate, compared with the multimillion-dollar Telstra system. I have seen the system operate and have taken part in a trial. I was very impressed with its capabilities. State Alert is a web-based system that can be set up quickly and effectively. A limited trial of the system was successfully conducted here in WA in March 2007. It can send a voice and/or SMS message directly to affected communities to alert people to impending danger and emergency. It is also capable of sending messages via landline, mobile phone, email, fax and USB systems. Last month I wrote to the federal Attorney General asking if he could expedite the changes that were needed to allow Western Australia to access the integrated public number database. We needed that to be able to put our operation of State Alert into action. I was delighted with the response from the federal Attorney General. He said that he would expedite an amendment to the legislation. As an interim measure, he has allowed us to have temporary access to the database. Both FESA and the WA Police deserve our applause for their fantastic work on developing this system. This is too important an issue to play politics with. I know all of us at the local, state and federal levels want to see the best results for our people. I acknowledge the particular concerns of the member for Darling Range in his question today. I am confident that we will soon have an effective and potentially life-saving early alert system in place in WA.
Early today this house expressed its very deep sympathy to the victims of the dreadful fires in Victoria. I do not think this is a time to start trying to score political points. What we need to do as a government is to focus on preventive measures to try to ensure this sort of disaster does not claim the lives of people in Western Australia. As it happens, WA has actually done quite a lot in terms of an early alert warning system. Indeed, we lead the nation in this area. My predecessor in the previous government helped start the ball rolling on this and I am happy at the outset to acknowledge his work in this area. WA Police and the Fire Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia have jointly developed a system known as State Alert. This is the cheapest and probably the most effective system of its kind in Australia. It is a cost-effective option; it has no peer. It cost $460 000 to develop and will cost about $300 000 a year to operate, compared with the multimillion-dollar Telstra system. I have seen the system operate and have taken part in a trial. I was very impressed with its capabilities. State Alert is a web-based system that can be set up quickly and effectively. A limited trial of the system was successfully conducted here in WA in March 2007. It can send a voice and/or SMS message directly to affected communities to alert people to impending danger and emergency. It is also capable of sending messages via landline, mobile phone, email, fax and USB systems. Last month I wrote to the federal Attorney General asking if he could expedite the changes that were needed to allow Western Australia to access the integrated public number database. We needed that to be able to put our operation of State Alert into action. I was delighted with the response from the federal Attorney General. He said that he would expedite an amendment to the legislation. As an interim measure, he has allowed us to have temporary access to the database. Both FESA and the WA Police deserve our applause for their fantastic work on developing this system. This is too important an issue to play politics with. I know all of us at the local, state and federal levels want to see the best results for our people. I acknowledge the particular concerns of the member for Darling Range in his question today. I am confident that we will soon have an effective and potentially life-saving early alert system in place in WA.
WA Police and the Fire Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia have jointly developed a system known as State Alert. This is the cheapest and probably the most effective system of its kind in Australia. It is a cost-effective option; it has no peer. It cost $460 000 to develop and will cost about $300 000 a year to operate, compared with the multimillion-dollar Telstra system. I have seen the system operate and have taken part in a trial. I was very impressed with its capabilities. State Alert is a web-based system that can be set up quickly and effectively. A limited trial of the system was successfully conducted here in WA in March 2007. It can send a voice and/or SMS message directly to affected communities to alert people to impending danger and emergency. It is also capable of sending messages via landline, mobile phone, email, fax and USB systems. Last month I wrote to the federal Attorney General asking if he could expedite the changes that were needed to allow Western Australia to access the integrated public number database. We needed that to be able to put our operation of State Alert into action. I was delighted with the response from the federal Attorney General. He said that he would expedite an amendment to the legislation. As an interim measure, he has allowed us to have temporary access to the database. Both FESA and the WA Police deserve our applause for their fantastic work on developing this system. This is too important an issue to play politics with. I know all of us at the local, state and federal levels want to see the best results for our people. I acknowledge the particular concerns of the member for Darling Range in his question today. I am confident that we will soon have an effective and potentially life-saving early alert system in place in WA.
Both FESA and the WA Police deserve our applause for their fantastic work on developing this system. This is too important an issue to play politics with. I know all of us at the local, state and federal levels want to see the best results for our people. I acknowledge the particular concerns of the member for Darling Range in his question today. I am confident that we will soon have an effective and potentially life-saving early alert system in place in WA.
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