Thousands of Tasmanians lost power during the recent wild weather which saw destructive winds and floods lash the state, bringing down powerlines and trees. Many have expressed frustration at a lack of communication as they faced prolonged outages, some spanning weeks. Their voices could be heard after the lower house passed a motion for an independent review into TasNetworks' response to the event
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00:00For two weeks, Lee Blaisley relied on a generator to power one light and the TV.
00:09It's a bit of a hassle, but I've been able to go into town and shower, and mostly
00:16living on takeaway food, which is all right.
00:19His generator was noisy, but his phone, quiet.
00:24I've had one text from TasNet networks, and that was the first day of the outage.
00:30Apart from me ringing them every couple of days, nothing from them.
00:34A little further north, John Gardner heard more.
00:37He was told the power was back on when it wasn't, and given inaccurate restoration times.
00:43If you're given an expectation of when the power's coming back on, you start to plan
00:49for that, and then to have that taken away and wait close to another week, it's pretty frustrating.
00:59Earlier this month, Tasmania was hit by multiple cold fronts that brought wild wind and flooding
01:06and left a trail of damage, including fallen trees and power lines.
01:1220 per cent of the electricity network was damaged, with 150,000 customers experiencing
01:19outages at some stage.
01:22Last week, independent MP for Braddon, Craig Garland, called for a review of TasNetworks' response.
01:29A lot of the people out there that had trouble communicating with TasNetworks to find out
01:34when the power would be restored, and also a lot of people that have significant health
01:38issues that are totally reliant on power.
01:41On the ground care was deployed by the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
01:46Our volunteers will visit people and provide psychological first aid, and check in on a
01:53person's emotional and spiritual wellbeing, and provide support in the moment.
01:58And TasNetworks acknowledges the frustration, saying it'll be reflected in its own review.
02:04There's always room for improvement, particularly after an event of this scale.
02:08The severity of this storm and the fact that we were managing multiple storm fronts, not
02:12just a single storm front, really made it challenging to communicate accurate information to customers.
02:17The government says if there's lessons to be uncovered, it's prepared to back a review.
02:23It's commended crews for their hard work in turning lights back on across Tasmania.