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One in five Australians may not understand what AusAlert's warning means
AusAlert uses cell broadcast to reach every nearby phone instantly, but only delivers a basic English message with no multilingual support.
AusAlert is Australia's new disaster alert, pinging every nearby phone via cell broadcast instead of congestion-prone SMS. It becomes fully operational in October.
But the alert delivers only basic English guidance, and navigating to local advice takes three website clicks. One in five Australians speak a language other than English; people with disability are up to four times more likely to die in disasters.
Why it mattersThere is no single national emergency platform in Australia, so the advice you get after AusAlert fires depends entirely on which state you are in when disaster hits.
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