On Monday 27 July, a test of a new national warning system, AusAlert, will be sent to all mobile devices in Australia, including some smartwatches and tablets.
The test will be sent at the same time across Australia – the local time equivalent to 2:00pm AEST.
Below, Australian experts comment on the test.
Dr Nicola Stokes – Lecturer from the School of Law & Criminology at Murdoch University
“Access to a hidden phone may be an FDV victim-survivor’s only private means of checking in with family, contacting a support service, seeking legal advice or asking for help in an emergency.
However, a hidden phone is only useful as a safety measure while it remains hidden. If it unexpectedly makes a sound, vibrates or lights up, an abusive partner may discover it. This could lead to increased surveillance, further abuse or other forms of retaliation.
This advice closely reflects what the women in my study told me. They were frustrated by systems that failed to understand the realities of FDV and coercive control.
They wanted clear and timely information, but they also wanted the autonomy to decide how best to manage their own circumstances and safety.
Reaching everyone who may have a hidden phone will be extremely difficult. Without sufficient notice and clear, practical guidance, some people may feel they have no option but to stop using or give up the device because they fear what could happen when it is discovered.
FDV support services need sufficient time and appropriate information to reach people safely. Refuges, counsellors, legal services, health professionals and, where appropriate, police and courts may all have a role in communicating the warning.
However, they need to be involved in planning the communication strategy rather than approached only after safety concerns emerge.
Emergency alerts are valuable, but their planning must also account for the risk created when a hidden safety device is exposed.
Early consultation and clear communication can preserve the life-saving purpose of the alert while giving people experiencing abuse an opportunity to take steps to protect themselves and those around them.”
Paul Gardner-Stephen – Adjunct Associate Professor at the College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University
“Despite the safety concerns for people with hidden phones, it is a great relief to hear that Australia has finally chosen to press ahead with an emergency alert system. This move follows many other countries, some of which have had them for decades.
This capability was available from the 2G-era, so it is surprising that Australia has not prioritised the rollout of this system in the past – especially in areas particularly prone to natural disasters.
One remaining concern is that this system appears to have the same complex foundation as the 000 system. It is based on rich but complex services within the cellular network, handset operating systems and other components of the national communications ecosystem. This creates many points of failure that the recent Telstra outage has shown are not merely theoretical.
As with 000, it would do well for Australia to consider whether this is sufficient, or whether we need to adopt a ‘layered resilience’ approach.
For example, it could leverage the 2G/3G signalling available from IoT communications networks to also be able to provide both a robust 000 fall-back service. As well, it could broadcast SMS that can be camped-on by all models of mobile phones, regardless of operating system version or country of purchase, for example if phones were purchased overseas, or brought in by tourists.
This also could fill the gaps when the 4G/5G data-oriented networks wilt off, either accidentally or intentionally, when they detect faults within these complex networks.”
Paula Dootson – Associate Professor at Queensland University of Technology
“The AusAlert cell broadcast system is another channel in a broader warnings ecosystem that already includes local agency apps and dashboards, radio, television, and social media. We operate in a multi-channel ecosystem deliberately, because people gather information from several places to verify a threat and make sense of what it means for them.
What AusAlert adds is the alert step. For most people, it will be the first they hear of a threat, and its job is to prompt them to seek more information and act early — not to be the whole warning.
It improves on what channels we have in place already because it reaches people our current channels miss: visitors and tourists and those in the community who haven’t subscribed to a state agency’s app.
And because it can be targeted tightly, it should warn the people actually affected.
But the message has to be designed well. Research shows people attend and act when a cell broadcast warning carries seven elements: the source, the hazard, the location, the time, what the hazard will do, what to do about it, and where to find out more.”
Paula has declared she is funded by Natural Hazards Research Australia.
Associate Professor Ali Yavari – Director of the 6G Research & Innovation Lab at Swinburne University of Technology
“Implementing contemporary emergency alert and notification infrastructure is a critical and necessary measure to enhance community safety during regional emergencies. Legacy technologies may present limitations in reliability, coverage, maintainability, and long-term support. Accordingly, the adoption of modern systems represents an important investment in public safety and emergency preparedness. In this context, AusAlert is a positive development, with the potential to improve the timeliness, reach, and effectiveness of emergency warnings, particularly in circumstances where prompt and accurate information can reduce risk and support informed decision-making.
However, the transition to any new alerting system should be undertaken carefully, equitably, and with due consideration of diverse community needs. Residents rely on a range of communication technologies, and some individuals, particularly in regional or remote areas, may continue to depend on landlines or older mobile phones. As AusAlert may not be supported by all devices, including many phones manufactured before 2019, it is important that established alerting channels remain available throughout the transition period. Emergency communication strategies should not assume universal access to current digital technologies. A multi-channel approach incorporating mobile alerts, landline warnings, radio, community networks, and other existing mechanisms would help ensure that vulnerable or technologically disadvantaged groups are not excluded.”
Dr Shuo Ding – Lecturer in Computer Science and Information Technology at La Trobe University
“Cell Broadcast is a mature technology that is widely used internationally, but the success of Australia’s rollout will depend on how effectively we address compatibility gaps affecting older phones, including some devices manufactured before 2019 that may not reliably receive these alerts.
In regional and rural Australia, device compatibility is only part of the issue. Mobile coverage gaps, damaged towers, power failures and limited network redundancy may also prevent otherwise compatible devices from receiving alerts.
I support proceeding with the national test as planned. It is the best way to identify real-world gaps in coverage and device compatibility. However, the October launch should not be treated as an immediate replacement for existing warning channels. AusAlert should operate alongside SMS, radio and state-based warning systems until its coverage, compatibility and reliability have been clearly demonstrated.”
Dr Cameron Anderson – Senior Lecturer and Discipline Lead in Paramedicine in the Rural Health School at La Trobe University
“AusAlert is a great way to use technology nearly everyone has and carries all the time – our phones – for a very important purpose.
As emergency managers, one of the key challenges we have is getting safety-critical alerts to people in a timely manner. There are a variety of ways this is done; for example, state emergency authorities have apps that can issue emergency warnings to people in a specific area (think VicEmergency in Victoria), as well as existing cell-broadcast technology that can send alerts to phones in a specific area.
Existing systems have several shortcomings. Often phones are on silent or have Do Not Disturb functionality that can disrupt the delivery of emergency messages. Messaging systems that rely on service addresses may not work if someone is away from home. Some systems can take a long time to deliver a message to a lot of people.
It’s not hard to think of situations where authorities may need to get an urgent message to people. A rapidly evolving bushfire or a truck crash releasing a poisonous chemical late at night may require people nearby to take time-critical action to ensure their safety. AusAlert represents a far quicker and more reliable way to notify all people in a specific area than existing methods, which may be slow, unreliable or resource intensive (such as door knocking).”
Dr Kylie McIntyre – trauma researcher & Deputy Director of the Violet Vines Marshman Centre for Rural Health Research in the Rural Health School at La Trobe University
“For rural communities, timely and reliable warnings can make a critical difference to safety, disaster preparedness and community resilience. However, disaster preparedness, response and recovery are about people, services and support networks – not just technology.
While emergency warnings are critical for community safety, they can also trigger distress in people affected by previous disasters. Effective preparedness is about supporting psychological wellbeing as well as physical safety.”
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