Senate committee urges disaster communication fix

Federal, state and territory emergency services should be able to communicate with each other via radio during an emergency, a senate committee has recommended.

The Environment and Communications References Committee said emergency services organisations should use a common band for radio communications, and all emergency services attending major incidents should be compelled to use a common radio platform.

Currently Tasmania and Western Australia's emergency services operate in different bands from those in other states.

The committee's report on early warning systems and communications in emergencies and natural disasters was prompted by the spate of challenges during the summer of 2010/2011.

It drew on reports from the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry, the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission, and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Coroner's inquests and inquiry into the Canberra firestorm in January 2003.

It said the need for interoperable radio voice communications had been "acutely demonstrated" by the difficulties and lessons of recent natural disasters."

It also recommended that the federal government allocate broadband radiofrequency spectrum to emergency services to allow the transmission of data such as photos, maps and videos between emergency services during a disaster.

"Due to the growing range of technologies, capabilities and services available via broadband, ESOs (emergency service organisations) are becoming increasingly reliant on data communications," the report said.

It called for a secure database of contacts for key personnel to be used in an emergency, and the broadcast and publishing of regular public education messages to prepare people for emergencies.

Guaranteed access to emergency call services should be extended to deaf people, and public broadcasters should be granted priority access to fuel during an emergency so they can keep operating using generators, the committee found.

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