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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-11-16 Daily Xml
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Government Radio Network

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (14:42): My question is to the Minister for Emergency Services. Can the minister assure the council that the backup batteries and backup generators, where relevant, for both the Government Radio Network and Telstra mobile phone towers have been checked since the September storms and are fully operational?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:42): Unfortunately, the party of the opposition, the conservatives, privatised Telstra as a corporation some time ago, so what happens with Telstra towers is not within the remit of—

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: So, you don't check?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS: No; the government does not own or operate Telstra towers. In respect to the Government Radio Network, that is absolutely within the remit of government and I am really pleased to report that during the course of significant weather events throughout the course of this winter—including the major storm event that we now know is probably one of the most significant storm events that this state has seen for generations—during the course of that event, the South Australian Government Radio Network performed exceedingly well. The Government Radio Network does have redundancy and backups in respect to battery power in the event that there are power failures. Those backups worked incredibly well.

Clearly, if there is a sustained blackout for periods that go beyond 24 hours, that presents a problem for the Government Radio Network, but the redundancies that were in place worked effectively, and I really want to pay a lot of credit to Mark Hanson and his team within the Attorney-General's Department and all those who were involved in the operation of the Government Radio Network and the backup procedures during the course of that event.

They did an outstanding job and I really do want to pay them credit. We all know that the Government Radio Network is a really important piece of infrastructure in the event of emergencies, and on this occasion it performed well, and I think that those who were behind the scenes are names that do not really get a mention in this place. They are not uniformed staff so they do not get the kudos that many of our uniformed officials do, but they really did do a good job on this occasion and I just want to give them my honest praise and thanks.

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