Triple-0 outage left staff working with pen and paper for hours
Victoria’s emergency triple zero computer and dispatch system was offline for two hours on Wednesday night, forcing staff to resort to a back-up pen and paper.
Kate Fitzgerald, the deputy secretary of emergency management at the Department of Justice and Community Safety, told a parliamentary inquiry of an unplanned outage at 5.30pm. The computer-aided and dispatch system was fully restored by 7.30pm.
The triple-zero outage affected the emergency services dispatch system.Credit: Wayne Taylor
She said Triple Zero Victoria used “business continuity arrangements to ensure minimal impact on the community and on those calling triple-zero” during that time.
“Those business continuity arrangements are well practiced by Triple Zero Victoria, and they’re consistent with other jurisdictions.”
The board met on Wednesday to understand the cause and impact of the outage, Fitzgerald said, and Triple Zero Victoria was also analysing how many emergency calls were made during the two-hour outage.
“An important point to note is that Triple Zero Victoria was able to receive all the calls,” Fitzgerald said. “There wasn’t an issue with the Triple Zero Victoria number itself, it was an unplanned outage on the CAD system. And the CAD system is what call-takers and dispatchers use when you call triple zero.”
The back-up is a manual “card system”, in which call-takers write emergency details down on a card.
Fitzgerald said the reliability of the system would be improved by the next-generation system. A vendor will be announced in coming weeks.
Premier Jacinta Allan said the next-generation technology was complex but was well-advanced. She said any potential impacts from Wednesday night would be investigated, adding that she was not aware of any adverse incidents.
“Certainly, too, Triple Zero have expressed an apology for any distress that may have been caused by the outage last night.”
A Triple Zero Victoria spokeswoman said the back-up measures enacted minimised the impact to the community and that normal operations resumed at 7.15pm on Wednesday.
“Our staff are highly trained in Victoria’s CAD back-up procedures, which are consistent with all other Australian jurisdictions.”
The opposition’s emergency services spokesman Richard Riordan said Triple Zero Victoria had been once again forced to use pen and paper “because of Labor’s mismanagement”, which he said was putting communities at risk.
“Labor has managed to give Triple Zero Victoria a new logo but hasn’t made a start on delivering a modern and reliable dispatch system to get emergency services to vulnerable Victorians sooner.”
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