The board of Triple-Zero has directly rebuked the Andrews Labor Government over the suitability of a critical backup dispatch system.
In April, Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes defended the months-long wait on developing a proper backup to the troubled Triple Zero computer system, saying the government already has"a backup system which transfers to what is currently utilised as the training system".
However, ESTA executives have admitted they had little faith in this band-aid solution.
Freedom of Information documents obtained by the Liberals and Nationals confirm that at a board meeting in April 2021, high-level members of ESTA agreed that use of the CAD training software was only "suitable for a planned exercise, but not for an unplanned one". This was because"the training environment had to be made ready" before it could be used.
In multiple meetings from June and July of that year, the board described the training software as a"successful method for completing planned outages", but crucially this did not extend to unplanned outages.
The inability of the training package to work as a safe backup to the main CAD system was exposed last May, when it was reported that Triple-Zero operators were forced to use pen and paper.
Shadow Minister for Emergency Services, Brad Battin, said it was yet another example of the Andrews Labor Government putting spin before solutions to Victoria's troubled Triple-Zero service.
"Yet again, Daniel Andrews has been caught out trying to spin away problems instead of fixing them."
"Victorians cannot afford another four years of mismanagement under Daniel Andrews. Only a Liberals and Nationals Government will restore community confidence in Triple-Zero."
