The national emergency medal recipients are Justin Alexander, Hassan Altaha, Nicole Best, Justin Bloodworth, James Corkill, Chris Fredes, Simon Fruend, David Gorton, Jim Henry, Minoru Hirai, Jeremy Thearle, and Colin Williams.

The medals are awarded to people who render sustained or significant service during nationally significant emergencies.

NSW Telco Authority acting managing director Kristie Clarke thanked medical recipients from the Authority’s Telecommunications Emergency Management Unit (Temu) and Network Operations for their commitment to serve and protect people of NSW.

“It is an honour to acknowledge the efforts of the NSW Telco Authority team and thank them for their service during the 2019-2020 bushfires to protect telecommunications infrastructure and keep emergency services connected,” Clarke said.

“NSW Telco Authority plays an integral role during an emergency or natural disaster by maintaining and monitoring the public safety network (PSN) used by emergency services for mission-critical communications.”

“By providing a stable, operational and interoperable PSN, our first responders were able to focus on their priority to communicate with and support the community during this devastating event.”

Clarke added that the medals represented an incredible amount of coordination, collaboration, and commitment from Temu and network operations teams to protect people and places across NSW.

“PSN sites were crucial in protecting communities and keeping emergency services connected during the Black Summer bushfires and, more recently during the floods in Northern NSW."

“This technology saves lives, and we want to thank those who have utilised it for their service.”

Next to Australia’s triple zero emergency hotline, the PSN is the most critical communications network in NSW.

The NSW Government is investing $1.4 billion to expand and enhance the PSN to better protect communities.

This first appeared in the subscription newsletter CommsWire on 15 June 2022.