Alert SA Mobile App

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (14:24): A further supplementary: is the minister now suggesting that people actually revert from using the Alert SA app to using the CFS and other information sources instead of the Alert SA app?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister Assisting the Minister for Health, Minister Assisting the Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse) (14:24): I don't believe that is what I said. I think if you look back at what I said, I said quite clearly that every time there is a bushfire and emergency risk, the advice always is to use different multiple sources of information as appropriate in the circumstances to make sure that people have the most up-to-date information available to them.

There are a variety of sources of information that we promote, one of which is the Alert SA website. Another of course is the Alert SA app, as we have discussed, and also the CFS website, which we direct people to in the case of bushfire risk. We now have huge connectivity with people through Facebook and Twitter, particularly when there is bushfire risk.

Full credit to the people who work in the CFS who, when there is an incident, spend a long time monitoring, checking and updating all of those other sites which we know are the areas in which people regularly interact as well, to make sure that the information going out through that media is accurate. Then of course there is the traditional media as well, through television and radio. We obviously have a longstanding relationship with the ABC as the emergency broadcaster, and relationships with other commercial broadcasters in South Australia, to make sure that they get accurate information and can broadcast that as widely as possible.

So, when there is an emergency, whether it is a bushfire or any other type of emergency, our emergency services are well trained at using all the means at their disposal to get that information out to the public. The advice that we have for the public is to try to use as many different sources of information to make sure that they have the most up-to-date information to be able to respond to that and hopefully, in the case of a bushfire, to activate their prepared bushfire action plan, which they will hopefully have in place to respond to that event if it is likely or if it has the potential to impact upon their particular locality.