Federal Government Rejects ACT Criticism of Emergency Alert System

The Australian Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, issued a median release "Australia's emergency alert system working well" (4 October 2011). This rejects criticism of the national Emergency Alert system by the ACT Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Simon Corbel. This followed problems with alerting the public to a fire in Canberra 15 to 16 September 2011. On the information available it appears that the federal position is the correct one. Problems were due to the ACT Emergency Services not using the emergency alert system correctly, rather than a failure of the system. The ACT Government needs to improve training and procedures for alerting Canberra residents to future emergencies.