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A royal commissioner has slammed delays in achieving a clear and nationally consistent bushfire warning system, saying it needs to be in place before the next fire season to address confusion in the community.
Annabelle Bennett says work to fix the national warnings system has been underway since 2016 but is not expected to be in place until 2022.
“I must say, for my part, I find it breathtaking that it takes so many years to come up with something where you know there’s confusion,” Dr Bennett told NSW and Victorian officials on Wednesday.
“And yet year after year, people are being exposed to natural disasters and fires in particular where they have no idea what they’re meant to do under this system.”
Dr Bennett said she did not understand why there was not a sense of urgency in getting the system fixed in time for the next bushfire season.
“I do not comprehend how there can be any view anywhere in the country that this can wait until 2022.”
A scaled system of warnings was introduced in all states and territories after Victoria’s 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, involving three levels: advice, watch and act, and emergency warning.
But there have been concerns over the confusing nature of the alert system and whether it sufficiently communicates an increasing or elevated sense of risk, particularly over what was meant by ‘watch and act’.
Dr Bennett said the community was concerned about whether watch and act meant they should stay and watch, or should act and go.
NSW Rural Fire Service communications director Anthony Clark, who chairs a national warnings working group, said there had been significant work over the past 18 months to drive consistency in terminology, icons, alert levels and the display of information.
Mr Clark admitted there was confusion in the community over the term watch and act, with a view that it “seemed to be a bit of a bet each way”.
“We know that there is a degree of community concern or confusion around that, but we want to get it right and we need to get it right,” he said.
Emergency Management Victoria’s operational communications manager Reegan Key suggested the work could be completed well before the 2022 deadline, as the last stage of community research was expected to be completed within weeks.
“I would certainly see that the bushfire agencies would move to adopt the new framework as soon as possible,” she said.
Australian Associated Press
