Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, today announced a key initiative to better manage the volume of Triple Zero emergency calls made during major natural disasters or emergencies.

“As we saw during last year’s Victorian Bushfires, the capacity of the Triple Zero service can be quickly overwhelmed in the event of a significant or widespread emergency,” he said. “To address this, the Government has agreed on a national protocol for the use of recorded voice announcements to provide valuable information to Triple Zero callers.”

The new protocol will ensure that callers to Triple Zero during major disasters or emergencies that don’t immediately go through to an operator will be provided with critical information and contacts.

This may include, for example, options to link to a relevant information line or State hotline number. Recent experience has shown that during large-scale emergencies, people will often call Triple Zero seeking information, rather than because they need immediate emergency assistance.

It is estimated that approximately 40 per cent of calls to the Triple Zero service can be directed elsewhere in order to free up lines for life threatening or time critical calls for help.

Mr McClelland said the new protocol would have a significant impact on call volumes during large-scale disasters and would provide a faster and more effective response when people need it most.

“The protocol follows other recent Commonwealth initiatives including the provision of a National Emergency Call Centre Surge Capability to augment State and Territory emergency information lines when local capacity is overwhelmed,” he said.

“The Government remains committed to working with the States and Territories to continually improve the effectiveness of Australia’s Emergency Call Service arrangements.”