A national overhaul of text message warnings for people at threat of a disaster is still years away, with the federal government confirming there’s been a three-year blowout to its original plans.
The proposed new system is meant to be capable of delivering a message to any device with a SIM card, targeting a location to within 160 metres, and overriding settings like “do not disturb” to ensure that messages were received.
Despite initially pledging it would be ready by the end of last year, the government has now conceded the so-called national messaging system (NMS) is nowhere near ready.
“Testing of the NMS is anticipated to occur in the first half of 2026 and is expected to be operational later that year,” a spokesperson for Communications Minister Michelle Rowland told ABC News.
“Full use of the NMS by the states and territories is expected in 2027.”
Ms Rowland and then-emergency management minister Murray Watt announced the NMS as part of a $10.1 million commitment to overhaul emergency communications in 2023.
“We expect that this will take around 18 months,” Ms Rowland said at the time.
“So, towards the end of 2024, this will be ready.”
But in the years since, the government has quietly hit delays that have blown out the timeframe.
“The design of the NMS has been more complex than originally envisaged and involves significant negotiation with mobile network operators on the technical specifications in a rapidly changing disaster occurrence environment,” the spokesperson said.
“That work has been progressing and now that contracts are in place with all mobile network operators, the NMS build has commenced.
“This work is being undertaken in close consultation with states, territories and mobile network operators.”
Government accused of hiding delays
Last week, as Tropical Cyclone Alfred was edging closer to the mainland, the government conceded the new system wasn’t ready.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he “would prefer it was ready” but didn’t say how long the project had been delayed.
Shadow Communications Minister Melissa McIntosh described the delay as “unacceptable” and accused the government of having “bungled” the project.
She said the government should have been more transparent with the public about the delays.
“This wasn’t a priority and demonstrates the absolute lack of action to get this vital service running for those in need,” Ms McIntosh said.
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When the government announced the proposed upgrade, Senator Watt, who has since taken on new ministerial responsibilities, said he’d lost count of the amount of complaints he’d received about alert timeliness.
“It had been our hope to have the system up and running this year for this disaster season,” Senator Watt said on Wednesday.
“But it was never going to be overriding or replacing the existing emergency alert system.”
Ms Rowland’s spokesperson said the existing system was used during ex-Cyclone Alfred’s activity last week.
The spokesperson said 4.5 million alerts were received by people in the affected areas.
