​SUBJECT/S: Flooding in central Australia, AusAlert, High speed rail.

MINISTER FOR EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT KRISTY MCBAIN: Thank you guys all so much for being here today. Can I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on where we meet and pay my respect to elders, past, present and emerging. I've got Coordinator-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Brendan Moon, with me today. And first, I'd like to give an update on the flooding situation that we have in central Australia.

We've obviously seen some widespread rain in Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia. We've seen an extraordinary amount of rain in particular in parts of the Northern Territory which have come from a slow moving low pressure system. The National Emergency Management Agency Crisis Coordination Team is working closely with states and territories impacted by this event, and this morning, the Albanese and Finocchiaro Governments have activated disaster assistance for communities across Alice Springs Town Council, Barkly Regional Council, Central Desert Regional Council and MacDonnell Regional Council areas. Primary producers can claim freight subsidies, covering up to 50 per cent of eligible freight costs capped at $5,000. Eligible non-profit organisations can apply for grants up to $10,000 to repair significant asset damage, The arrangements also support state and territory agencies and local governments to undertake counter disaster operations, as well as restore essential public assets and infrastructure, including debris removal, temporary repairs and works to make properties safe. The situation is still unfolding, obviously, and the Albanese Government stands ready to provide further support if needed during this flooding event.

But today is a really significant day, not only for the Albanese Government, but also for all Australians impacted by disasters. We are launching today AusAlert, which is our government's new national messaging system. AusAlert will use cell broadcast technology to enable authorities, including state and territory authorities, to send targeted emergency messages to all compatible mobile devices, and we can geolocate those down to a 160 metre radius. It's a system that will be used in great effect, and we've seen that if we had a system that was available now, it would be used in this flooding event. AusAlert is expected to be operational by October this year, ahead of the next high risk weather season. Ahead of the launch of AusAlert in October, we'll be running community based trials in June this year in every state and territory, as well as in a cross border community. We'll also be running a national test in every community across the country, which will take place at 2pm on Monday, 27 July this year, which will validate the system's full capability and support the awareness of this new system. During the national test, everyone with a compatible mobile device will receive an alert.

This is a major development in not only our launch phase, but it's a major development in emergency alerts altogether. This will bring the advantages of cell broadcast technology to Australian emergency warnings. There will be two types of warning levels, critical alert, which is the highest level of warning. This is an intrusive alert, which will have a fixed volume, a unique ring tone and vibration, and users cannot opt out of receiving critical alerts. There will also be priority alerts. They are less intrusive, and users can opt out of receiving these alerts. AusAlert messages will appear differently to our current text-based message systems. They will appear on locked screens of mobile devices and exist outside of the standard text messaging app. Cell broadcast works when mobile networks are overwhelmed with traffic. It is considered international best practice and has been adopted by more than 35 countries across the world. AusAlert will be more reliable, more accurate and more efficient than the current systems in place. It means authorities can reach people quickly when it matters most, helping to save lives and property. To date, the government has invested $132 million to build and test this system. It will reach millions of devices in near real time.

And if I could just provide a personal account of why this matters. In the Black Summer bushfires, in communities that had large numbers of tourists present during that emergency, a number of people did not receive their emergency text messages until days after the fire event when they were back in location of the hometown where they had access to their own provider’s tower. This does not rely on any one single telco provider to be able to provide this alert system. It will replace the SMS-based Emergency Alert system, which we know had limitations. AusAlert will also protect people's privacy. Phone numbers and location data are not collected or retained. Any messages can be sent through an authorised server which keeps the messages secure.

I really want to thank states and territories who have worked really closely with the Albanese Government to help us deliver AusAlert. This collaboration ensures that we have a targeted and appropriate use of AusAlert and recognises the leading role that states and territories have in emergency services. So just to recap, AusAlert will allow emergency services to send messages to anyone in a selected target area at the same time. It will be operational by October this year, ahead of the next high risk weather season. There will be a community based trial in every state and territory in June this year, and a national test at 2pm on 27 July this year. I'm going to hand over to the Coordinator-General Brendan Moon to make some remarks.

NEMA COORDINATOR-GENERAL BRENDAN MOON: Thanks very much Minister. Each event since the Black Summer bush fires of 2019, and there have been over 200 of them, have reminded us of the importance of the fact that communities that understand the risk that they face are safer and recover more quickly. AusAlert will deliver on that urgent, vital need of our community for information surrounding those threats and those hazards that they will face. It provides a real time emergency warning at scale, and also we can geolocate it down to quite small areas as well. It will alert people to the type of hazard that they are facing, its severity, whereabouts and importantly, what action to take, and this continues to deliver on our entire Australian warning system. It is a warning system that is based on multiple channels. It includes social media. It includes the media sending out alerts. But importantly, this is using the latest technology to provide immediate alerts to our community, and it continues the further investment the Australian Government are making in terms of building truly scalable national capabilities to ensure our communities are safe no matter what the threats are that they face.

JOURNALIST: Minister, is this limited to natural disasters or would it be used for other dangerous situations, for example, if we already had AusAlert in place would it have gone out on the day of the Bondi Terror Attack, for example?

MCBAIN: We’ve obviously built this system because it is really important to have a national warning system for natural disasters. But we are living in more complex times. So this would be able to be used by police for any police operations that may be required where people need to be warned, for example, to stay out of a particular area, but also, for example, on significant biosecurity threats for industry or for particular locations. The aim of this system is to make sure that it remains high level and emergency orientated.

JOURNALIST: So if it is a police operation for example, then how quickly could that information get from the police to the system and then out to phones, and more specifically again, would it have gone out during the Bondi Terror Attack?

MCBAIN: So obviously, our emergency systems are maintained mainly by states and territories, so it would go through their usual emergency services channels. And states and territories could determine, in a police operation, to send out an emergency alert using AusAlert. So that would be a decision for the New South Wales Police, for example, through their emergency service channels to send that alert, but yes, that would be available to them if they believe they need that.

JOURNALIST: Can I ask about the cost and the timing. This was originally supposed to be delivered I think by the end of 2024 with an initial budget of I think it was $10 million. We're now talking about October 2026, and I think you gave us a figure of over $130 million. That’s more than ten times what was initially announced. What happened?

MCBAIN: Look a build like this is quite technical, and we've had to not only work with telco providers, but with experts in this system to make sure that it does the intended job that the Australian Government needs it to do. We have seen, as I said, other countries undertake similar builds. We now have 35 countries that are using this type of technology. So we've been working with our international counterparts in similar agencies to the one that Coordinator-General runs, working with them, understanding how their system has worked, utilising their learnings in this build. But what we need to understand is we do not want a system that will not be compatible with sending out as many emergency alerts as possible. In a country that's as diverse as Australia in terms of not only our geography, but the threat that natural disasters place in certain communities, we want to make sure that this system does its job, and that's why we've invested heavily to make sure that when we go out into community based trials and national based trials, that we will understand how well the system will work because in a disaster, we want as many people as possible to be receiving an emergency alert so that they can make decisions that protect their life but their property as well.

JOURNALIST: So did the government not anticipate how much this was going to cost? That's a massive cost blowout, right?

MCBAIN: I don't see it as a cost blowout, I see it as an investment in community safety. And for communities that have been through multiple natural disasters, they know how important it is to make decisions as early as possible. So this investment is absolutely in community safety and community readiness.

JOURNALIST: Minister, what guarantees can the government make about the scope of the messages and how that might expand over time? You’ve said it’s for community safety. That could potentially include alerts to get vaccinated for particular diseases like dengue fever in a certain area or Q fever in cattle areas and so on. What are the guardrails about the number of messages that you could start sending out to specific locations, how will that work?

MCBAIN: We work really closely with our emergency management agencies in every state and territory, and there are operating protocols that are already in place for our emergency alert system, which is our current text-based system. They are all designed at making sure that communities are aware of an impending threat which is what this system is designed for. Obviously natural disasters are those impending threats that Emergency Alert has been used for, but we know, as I said, we're living in a world that is rapidly changing, and so we want to make sure that we're working with our state and territory emergency agencies on whether the police might be required to use a particular alert like this in an event that was, you know, had the potential to impact multiple people. So the aim and anticipation of this system is emergency alert. It's an AusAlert system for emergency situations. We do not want this system to be diluted by, you know, calls for people to do particular things, which might be nice for them to do, but doesn't impact their immediate threat.

JOURNALIST: Minister on a question that is quite fine detail so perhaps your experts will know, just say I’m driving to the coast, I’m streaming through my telephone listening to music and the alert comes through, does it come through on my speaker? Is it that detailed?

MCBAIN: Yeah, absolutely we've been working with our telco providers, testing out not only phones being connected through cars, but also headphones and watches in particular. Those tests are currently being run, and we'll make sure that in our community based test, but also the national test, that we resolve some of those questions. But the anticipation is, if your phone is connected through your car, you will receive that alert sound.

JOURNALIST: Minister, how would you describe the sound itself?

MCBAIN: It's an emergency siren. You know it's really important I think that any emergency alert system carries the level of warning as needed. We've all heard a police siren, an ambulance siren or a fire truck siren. It's similar in nature to that to alert people that there is an emergency situation unfolding.

JOURNALIST: Getting the alert itself is one thing, then those regional communities being able to make a call to emergency services, friends, family is another. The NFF’s been calling for mandatory back up for cell towers, temporary disaster roaming. Will you implement something like that to complement this new system?

MOON: So many of those enhancements to the system are currently underway. Not only from a technology perspective, but also from the emergency management arrangements as well, where priorities now are provided to our mobile network operators, our power companies, to access sites that are having challenges in terms of service delivery. So a lot of those enhancements, we've learned the lessons from many, many events now, to ensure that the delivery of critical services, whether it's telephony, whether it's power, whether it's water or sewerage, they have priority in terms of how we respond.

JOURNALIST: And you want to get it up and running by this year. Is that in anticipation of a particularly bad season?

MOON: I think our experience in the last five years would suggest and as I mentioned earlier at the top of this conference, in the last five years we've had over 200 events. This year alone we’ve dealt with bushfires, cyclones up north, we're dealing currently with flooding in central Australia, we've had Bondi as well. And I think COVID was an important reminder for us there are some risks and threats out there that we don't fully understand at this point in time. This is a core investment by all emergency services at a state level, at a territory level and the Commonwealth Government to ensure we can alert our community to whatever threat comes.

JOURNALIST: At this stage, have you got a list of the devices that won’t be compatible with this alert system? We know that recent Triple Zero outages have isolated some devices which have any issues, and how much of the population do you reasonably expect to reach. I mean I go to my apartment carpark and I lose reception underground so are there going to be communities in rural and remote Queensland, far north, in the territories, how are you going to judge how successful this test is?

MCBAIN: One of the things we're doing in our community based trials is running, for example, specific trials in high rise buildings to understand what happens there. We're running trials in remote parts of the country to understand what happens there. And obviously there'll be the national based trial. But we'll be working with the telco providers, we'll be working with local council and emergency agencies, as well as obviously the state governments and territory governments to understand post the community trials and post the national trial about how successful it was. And that is going to be an ongoing discussion, because we need to reach as many people as possible. The current system has its limitations. If you're not a customer of a particular provider, you won't get a text message unless you're in range of that particular provider. This system basically allows a triangulation of towers to be put in place, and regardless of what provider you have, you will get an emergency alert through AusAlert. So, this system is significantly different. It doesn't rely on one telco provider to have service. It just requires you to be within range of any system that is available. But we'll continue to work with states and territories and local councils and emergency agencies in particular, to satisfy ourselves of how successful that was after the community based and national trial.

JOURNALIST: What about the devices themselves?

MCBAIN: Yeah, there's a range of tests that have already been run through the build of this system, and we'll continue to run those tests. But one of the reasons we are doing community based trials, and then a national trial is to understand what particular devices we may have challenges with at this point in time, we believe that AusAlert would go to the majority of devices available across the country.

JOURNALIST: Even the ones that are having trouble connecting to Triple Zero at the moment?

MCBAIN: As I said, we're undertaking a range of tests already with telco providers and with state and territory authorities, and we'll continue to do that. But we want to make sure that our AusAlert goes to the majority of phones. It is very different to Triple Zero, where you are required to have access a provider to make a call. This is a priority alert. It doesn't go through the current text messaging app in phones. It appears on your home screen. All you have to do is be in range of a tower of a provider.

JOURNALIST: So you’re not anticipating that the devices that are having issues with Triple Zero would have an issue with this?

MCBAIN: We are continuing to do that testing by it’s a very different system than Triple Zero.

JOURNALIST: Minister, are you nervous about what could go wrong with the national test on 27 July?

MCBAIN: I’m not nervous at all, I’m really excited that we’re actually moving to cell-based technology. As I said, international best practice shows us that 35 countries around the world have already moved to this system. We have challenges with topography in our country, and we have challenges with providers, all telco providers, not being available in every community. So, what this requires is for you to be in range of a tower regardless of provider, and you should receive that AusAlert system. As I said, my personal experience shows me that our Emergency Alert system absolutely needed to be upgraded, and I'm proud that we're part of a government that is actually delivering this significant upgrade.

JOURNALIST: Minister, looking at other countries, in the US every Wednesday a warning alert is broadcast on TV, radio and phones. Have you looked, did you look at something like that, where it encompasses all technologies, or more technologies?

MOON: So we've looked and engaged with international providers for AusAlert for a number of years now in the build. So we've looked at a range of technologies that others have used, and also how effective they have been. And the design of AusAlert here in Australia is particularly tailored to our mobile network operators, our systems and also our communities.

JOURNALIST: Minister, just on another matter, if I may, the Prime Minister announced recently that there's a couple of hundred million more for high speed rail from Sydney to Newcastle. I think he spent 500 more million setting up the Authority. I've seen different reports about how much the actual quote is for the expectation about how much this project, this one sector, will cost. I've heard 90, 92, and I've heard 50. Can you provide clarity for Australians out there who are thinking, you've got 700 million or more on the table, and you won't even tell us how much it's going to cost to do it?

MCBAIN: High speed rail has been talked about in Australia for decades. I think the important step that the Albanese Government took was that it was past time to actually put some money down on the table to say we need to get to a point where we've got a design and a business case that we can actually go out and understand whether the community wants to proceed with that, and whether there is a way in which there's a public private partnership. And I think those things were discussed by Minister Catherine King last week in the announcement of that additional $200 million. What that additional $200 million provides us is detailed design for every segment of that track between Sydney and Newcastle, and would provide us with an end figure about what it would cost to build. I think what we know now is that you actually have to have those costings. You cannot bring, you know, projects like high speed rail to fruition unless we actually have those detailed costings. We've seen with the Inland Rail that cost blow out time and time again because the former Coalition Government did not do the proper planning. They did not do the proper design work, and unfortunately, many communities have been left with this promised track that unfortunately just was never funded by the former government. So, you know, if we're serious about building, continuing to build rail projects across the country, then this is the appropriate next step to make sure that we get the proper design and costing to go to towards that build if that's what the community wants.

JOURNALIST: So just to clarify, you don’t know?

MCBAIN: Look again, we'll leave that there. But I think that $200 million is going to provide us with that accurate costing detail.

JOURNALIST: Minister, just on emergency issues again, AusAlert is obviously one response to what happened in the Black Summer in 2019, what is the effort going towards other responses? We know one of the things the Royal Commission identified was issues with communications between different fire brigades on different sides of the borders. What work is the Commonwealth doing to push that forward and sort of ensure that communications, actually for first responders are up to date along with the public.

MCBAIN: Yeah, obviously, the Black Summer bushfires were a significant event that impacted multiple states and a territory, and it's incumbent upon all levels of government to have a look at what our systems are and make sure that they interact more appropriately with each other. It's one of the reasons that I meet with my counterparts in the state and territory three times a year just make sure that our systems are set up to interact and collaborate with each other. At the moment, we have National Emergency Management Agency staff embedded in the Northern Territory to help with the response to that flooding situation. Obviously, we want to make sure that state-based apps continue to talk to each other. We know that there is some issues with emergency responder communication over borders, and I know that states and territories are continuing to have those discussions, but we will continue to play the role that we need to play, and that is in that coordinating space. One of the reasons we're doing AusAlert is because we wanted to take the lead and make sure that this got done as part of those Black Summer Royal Commission recommendations. So we've taken the lead here, and we'll continue to work with states and territories. It will be a system that majority will be used by the states and territories.

JOURNALIST: It’s been more than five years though, is it time that you should step in to speed up the process at least with those communications?

MCBAIN: Look again, most of those communications issues sit with states and territories. You know, they have a constitutional responsibility as first responders in those initial days, the federal government obviously comes in as part of that response and recovery with our disaster recovery funding arrangements, so we'll continue to play our role in coordinating a range of actions, but states and territories have a role as the primary level of government responsible for emergency response to do some of that work in communications.

[AusAlert sound is played]

MCBAIN: So the message will come on your home screen, not through the text based message system. This is the sound you will get. It is really important that we get the message out to not only communities in that community based trial, but in the national based trial. We want people to know this is the sound that they will get for AusAlert.

JOURNALIST: Even if their phone's on silent?

MCBAIN: Even if their phone's on silent.

JOURNALIST: How many rings will it give?

MOON: It runs for 10 seconds. 10 seconds intrusive alert for the critical alert.