Emergency call centre cuts

Wednesday, January 20, 1999 - 11:00

Emergency call centre cuts

By Bill Mason

BRISBANE — Telstra has been widely criticised over moves to close its 000 emergency call centre at Ipswich and divert all crisis calls to Sydney and Melbourne.

The closure, planned for April, will cost 40 to 60 jobs at the Ipswich centre. Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union Queensland branch secretary Ian McLean on January 14 slammed the loss of jobs.

Queensland ALP Senator Margaret Reynolds has called on the federal government to immediately halt the centralisation plan.

In early January, the Tasmanian coroner announced an urgent inquiry into the apparent mistaken deployment of an ambulance to a Victorian location, instead of to a Tasmanian accident location of the same name. The mistake was blamed on an emergency 000 call being automatically diverted by Telstra to a call centre in Victoria.

From GLW issue 345