Minister hails NSW Telco Authority's bushfire response

During a visit to the NSW Telco Authority’s headquarters in Sydney on Wednesday, 15 January, NSW Minister for Customer Service Victor Dominello hailed the Authority’s 132 continuous days of service during the bushfire crisis.

In comments posted on Facebook, the Minister said that “Along with our NSW Rural Fire Service and other frontline emergency services doing heroic work fighting the fires … there are many others behind the scenes who have been critical in support. One of the most important agencies during this time is the NSW Telco Authority.

“In order to save lives and property … we obviously need trucks, planes, fire retardant, water etc … but just as importantly we need communications.

“During fires significant effort (including the use of planes and fire retardants) is undertaken to protect telecommunication towers … because if these go down … then lives are seriously at risk.

“An inability to communicate with people about when and how to evacuate, and how fast the fires are travelling, would take us back to the old days of door knocking thousands of homes to communicate emergency information.

“When lives and properties hang in the balance by a matter of minutes and seconds … communicating quickly is beyond essential.

“Today I visited the team at the NSW Telco Authority to thank them for their tremendous efforts to date … we owe a great debt of gratitude to them for their dedication and working so effectively … today marks 132 continuous days of work for the team.”

Image courtesy Victor Dominello MP.