Thursday, 21 March 2024

Storm preparedness

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:05): It has been five weeks now since devastating storms swept through Victoria, including in my region of the south-east. I would again like to acknowledge the amazing work of our emergency services workers and volunteers, as well as the line workers who worked tirelessly to get us all reconnected as quickly as they could. Many pockets of my region were affected with power outages for several days, including Knoxfield and Upper Beaconsfield. Whilst I acknowledge the work, I am still very disappointed by the critical failures of AusNet’s outage tracker website, which absolutely needs to be addressed well in advance of and in preparation for any future major weather events. It was not the first time those websites had collapsed during a major event. It is also very disappointing to not see any progress so far from the telco companies on providing batteries or generator support to their towers that is sufficient. The systems that are in place were clearly insufficient, and many in my region were without mobile service for too long a period as well. My colleague in the other place Daniela De Martino, the member for Monbulk, is running a campaign to tell the telcos to power the towers, and I strongly encourage all here to support that campaign and to sign her petition as well.