The PIU develops a whole-of-government media and public information strategy in consultation with relevant agencies as appropriate.
Commonwealth
Bureau of Meteorology
The BoM issues warnings and information about a range of weather, climate and water related topics.
Some of the warnings issued by the BoM include:
- Severe Weather Warning
- Severe Thunderstorm Warning
- Fire Weather Warning
- Flood warnings.
The BoM also produces a range of forecasts, watches and alerts and other products to the community. The TFS publishes fire danger rating forecasts issued by the BoM daily during bushfire season.
The videos provide severe weather information that complements the Bureau’s warnings and forecasts and to help Australians understand the current weather situation.
The video below is an excellent example of a Severe Weather Update which provides information on the fire danger conditions in SA, NSW, Tas and Vic, produced on December 2019.
Further video resources:
Videos are released by the BoM when there is severe weather to help Australians make informed decisions. This link provides a suite of recent videos for you to watch and see how the BoM uses this format to inform the public of severe weather warnings.
State and Local Government
At an emergency site, the Response Management Authority is responsible for providing public information about the emergency. This includes granting access for media to visit parts of the emergency site.
Away from the emergency site, public information is usually provided in a variety of ways including, but not limited to:
- TasALERT
- Responding agencies (i.e Fire, Police, Health, Bureau of Meteorology)
- Councils
- Other authorised organisations/groups
- Emergency operations, emergency coordination and recovery centres.
Resource
The Tasmanian Emergency Management Arrangements (TEMA) are issued under the authority of the Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Management in accordance with the requirements of Section 32 of the Emergency Management Act 2006. The TEMA provides essential information for people who have a direct involvement in emergency management.
Role of the National Broadcaster
The ABC National is the National Emergency Broadcaster. The ABC works with emergency agencies to deliver warnings, alerts, information and news about disasters and emergencies on TV, radio, online and mobile devices.
ABC radio (Hobart) has formal arrangements with Tasmania Fire Service where it is agreed they will provide warnings to the public at certain time intervals. To learn about bushfires and other emergencies that may be occurring in Tasmania, the public is encouraged to tune in to ABC local radio.