There appears to be moves to bring Marine Rescue NSW into the Public Safety Network (PSN) radio communications network.
Local Member for Ballina, Tamara Smith raised the question in parliament last week. She told the chamber Marine Rescue NSW ‘operates as the only emergency service organisation without access’ to the PSN, and asked ‘will the minister consider funding to bring Marine Rescue onto the network so that it can continue its essential work?’
Emergency Services Minister, Jihad Dib (Labor), replied that ‘the Premier’s Department and the Telco Authority are working closely with Marine Rescue about the potential transfer of their radios to the PSN’.
Meanwhile, Marine Rescue Brunswick crew were involved in a rapid medical evacuation from a fishing trawler off the coast of Byron Bay last week.
Marine Rescue NSW inspector, John Murray, said they were tasked for the mission by NSW Police Marine Area Command.
‘A call was received just before 10am [Wednesday, 25 September] that a 17-year-old male was suffering a medical episode’.
‘Brunswick 30 (BR 30) met the trawler one nautical mile (1.8km) off Cape Byron and transferred the young male onto the Marine Rescue NSW vessel. The BR 30 crew assisted the patient and took him to Brunswick Boat Harbour where NSW Ambulance paramedics were waiting to provide further treatment,’ Inspector Murray said.
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