Emergency warning and alert systems will be upgraded to improve communication during natural disasters.
A new national messaging system will be able to send warnings to the mobile phones of people near emergencies in real time.
The upgrades have been announced ahead of next week’s federal budget.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the new system would allow emergency crews to send out alerts that weren’t reliant on text messages, which could suffer delays during events such as bushfires.
“This enables emergency services to be able to literally draw a ring around a defined area and broadcast the message to any device in that area,” she told Seven’s Sunrise program on Tuesday.
“It is far more instantaneous, real-time and effective, and we know that because other countries have deployed this, that can make a measurable difference during national disasters and emergencies.”
As part of the new system, messages can also be sent in languages other than English to provide official information to multicultural communities.
Ms Rowland said the system would also mitigate misinformation that can spread during natural disasters.
“It requires a great deal of testing and co-operation between the different telco carriers,” she said.
Emergency Services Minister Murray Watt said the upgrades were needed because some people were not receiving the information fast enough during emergencies.
He said this could be because messages were not being sent to the right area, or people being with a different phone provider.
“That is what this messaging system is all about, having one system across the country that can effectively override a mobile phone system and deliver people very targeted, very quick messages,” Senator Watt told ABC TV.
“Every minute that people don’t get information is a risk to them and their families. This kind of system will smooth up and fasten the process of getting that information out to people.”
Emergency crews are also being bolstered in the budget, with $10.1 million to be spent to set up a public safety mobile broadband task force.
Senator Watt said the mobile broadband system would provide crews with fast voice, video and data communication that can be interchangeable across jurisdictions.
“Every state has different communication systems that their first responders use,” he said.
“We know that disasters don’t respect state borders, they cross borders, and we have a lot of emergency personnel that get deployed into different states.
“It is crazy in this day and age that they don’t have communication systems that can talk to each other.”
– AAP
