Power Outages, Telecommunications

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:27): I have a further supplementary. Is the minister aware of any serious incidents that were unable to be reported due to the 000 service being unavailable at any time last night?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:27): I want to be clear and I want to state what I have already stated before just for the sake of clarity. There is no suggestion and there have been no reports that the 000 service has gone down at any point or has not been able to deal with the incoming calls. Capacity has been lifted throughout the course of the event. I received advice on that throughout the course of the afternoon and into the evening and, indeed, this morning. The only risk to people not having access to 000 is if they themselves at their end don't have access to an appropriate phone service.

In answer to your question, no, I have not been made aware of any reports where people's lives have been endangered as a consequence of them not having access to telephonic services to access 000.