The parliamentary inquiry examining the response to the significant flooding that occurred in NSW in February and March has criticised Telstra for choosing “useless” locations for infrastructure, failing to adequately plan to mitigate future catastrophes, and failing to learn from past disaster experiences.
The committee’s conclusions were as follows: “Telstra has not learned from prior flood experiences.
“It continues to place support infrastructure and energy supply at ground level, rendering mobile phone towers ineffective during floods,” the report states.
The inquiry discovered that the NSW government’s agencies and telecommunications companies had neglected to deliver sufficient emergency communications to the communities affected by the floods in February and March.
Following a number of regional and city hearings and formal comments, the crucial findings were made public this week.
The committee found that the NSW State Emergency Service misled the public by disseminating outdated, erroneous, and unclear communications during the floods that occurred in February and March 2022.
“For safe evacuation and rescue during severe flooding events, timely, accurate, and clear public communication is essential.
According to the report, “it is therefore particularly alarming to hear about the public communication shortcomings during such a disastrous flooding disaster.”
The inability to send out emergency messages as a result of the region’s telecommunications and energy networks collapsing and frequently being left with just broadcast radio added to this information flow failure.
The inquiry suggests that the NSW and federal governments collaborate to create a cross-agency national app in response.
