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18 Thursday March 9 2017<br />
Latest Christchurch news at www. .kiwi<br />
The Star<br />
Viewpoint<br />
Emergency alerts on<br />
your mobile phone<br />
THIS week I<br />
announced a new<br />
emergency alerting<br />
system that broadcasts<br />
to mobile phones is<br />
on track to be up and<br />
running by the end of<br />
the year.<br />
Launching a cell broadcast<br />
alerting system is a priority for<br />
the National Government and will<br />
help New Zealanders respond to<br />
the natural disasters we experience<br />
all too often.<br />
Cell broadcast alerting is a<br />
new way of sending information<br />
to mobile phones in a defined<br />
geographical area without people<br />
needing to download an app or<br />
subscribe to a service.<br />
The alerts will look similar to<br />
text messages and are received automatically<br />
– for free – by all cell<br />
broadcast-enabled mobile phones<br />
in the area.<br />
Discussions with New Zealand’s<br />
major telecommunications companies<br />
are progressing well and we<br />
expect to have contracts signed in<br />
the coming weeks.<br />
As no technology is 100 per cent<br />
fail-safe or able to reach everyone<br />
in all circumstances, multiple<br />
channels will continue to be used<br />
to send alerts when emergencies<br />
Gerry Brownlee<br />
happen. These channels include<br />
radio, television, websites, various<br />
social media, smartphone apps, sirens<br />
and others. In Christchurch,<br />
we have warning sirens along the<br />
coast from Brooklands to Taylors<br />
Mistake and the other channels<br />
are used as local authorities determine<br />
appropriate.<br />
It is important to remember<br />
cell broadcast alerts don’t replace<br />
the need for people to pay attention<br />
to natural warnings. This<br />
is particularly important in the<br />
case of earthquakes and potential<br />
tsunamis.<br />
Cell broadcasting will get<br />
information about an emergency<br />
to people faster and more reliably<br />
than ever before. Additionally,<br />
cell broadcast technology works<br />
separately from text messages, so<br />
even when the networks get busy<br />
after a disaster, alerts can still be<br />
sent quickly.<br />
The system is already well established<br />
elsewhere in the world,<br />
in countries such as the United<br />
States, Japan, Israel and Chile.<br />
We said:<br />
Cantabrians’ access to<br />
non-emergency surgery<br />
is now the worst in the<br />
country. The Canterbury<br />
and South Canterbury<br />
district health boards were<br />
ranked worst for elective<br />
surgeries – which includes<br />
everything but emergency<br />
surgery<br />
You said:<br />
Simone Kuhlmann –<br />
Maybe that has something to do<br />
with the fact that they overwork<br />
and underpay their new young<br />
doctors? I mean I wouldn’t want<br />
to work 17-hour days either . .<br />
. let alone operate on someone!<br />
Besides they’re on strike at the<br />
moment anyway aren’t they? My<br />
mother needs surgery on her<br />
ankle again after it was broken<br />
an operated on 1.5 years ago<br />
and it’s been impossible to get<br />
in.<br />
Graeme Palmer – Just as<br />
well I have made the decision<br />
to stay in Dunedin with the<br />
great specialist team that I have<br />
around me rather than move<br />
home to Christchurch.<br />
Amy Kennedy – Only took<br />
six months to get surgery on my<br />
badly broken ankle.<br />
Albert Read – This needs to<br />
be fixed now.<br />
We said:<br />
All is not well between<br />
Lyttelton residents<br />
and their local police.<br />
Residents want local<br />
police on patrol after<br />
hours and on weekends,<br />
and are taking matters<br />
into their own hands with<br />
satisfaction surveys. Even<br />
a former detective has laid<br />
a complaint about police<br />
performance<br />
You said:<br />
Marianne Allison – We<br />
have the same in New Brighton,<br />
I feel so sad for so many people<br />
here getting their cars broken<br />
into and having to pay a $500<br />
excess on insurance.<br />
Sally King – And it’s a<br />
similar story in many small<br />
New Zealand towns. Too many<br />
cut backs and lack of funding<br />
and misguided use of current<br />
precious funding. Small towns<br />
matter too.<br />
Amy Coursey – Nah. They<br />
know, the little town police<br />
officers are quite stretched. We<br />
live in a small town where the<br />
police have a huge area to cover<br />
and can’t get to everything.<br />
Jake Ranginui – It’s election<br />
year, we need to change the<br />
Government. Police are far too<br />
underfunded!<br />
Deborah Kavanagh –<br />
. . . and if the crims didn’t<br />
know before . . . they do now.<br />
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