EMERGENCY SERVICES:

CANBERRA: The Albanese Government has been forced to apologise for two incidents early this morning when mobile phones across Australia blasted false emergency warnings to their owners hours before the scheduled 2pm test of the nation’s new AusAlert system.

In making the apology, Minister for Emergency Management, Kristy McBain, (below) said an “overstressed” officer at the national disaster management centre in Canberra was responsible for triggering the mobile phone alert twice within a matter of minutes before dawn.

“I know these two false alarms woke up, annoyed, and probably distressed many Australians and for that on behalf of the government I apologise,” Ms McBain said.

The Minister explained that the officer who triggered the two alarms had initially misheard another officer in the national disaster centre’s control room talking about a “vicious, unprincipled, far-right regime trying to take over Australia”.

“It turns out that the officer who made the comment had just seen today’s blanket coverage in Murdoch media outlets about the rebranding of Sky News to News24,” Ms McBain explained. (main picture)

“The other officer who heard the remark, and who was already overstressed and on edge about this afternoon’s test, flicked the switch and triggered the first national mobile phone alert.

“He was soon set straight about the subject of the other officer’s comment and, to help explain it, was handed a copy of the column written by News24 CEO, Paul Whittaker about the branding change. (below)

“Unfortunately, this only aggravated his concern about a right-wing takeover of Australia and he soon hit the alert button again before being stood down by disaster centre’s office-in-charge,” Ms McBain said.

The Minister said she hoped this morning’s two false alarms would not undermine community confidence in the new nationwide emergency alarm system.

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