The constant failures here of our emergency number Triple Zero are unforgiveable and an indictment on those at the top.

It is showing a lack of maintenance, investment and competent management, by them.

The entire communications system has become more focused being a “cash cow” for investors and little about investing in infrastructure.

And it’s the rural sector that continues to suffer most of the consequences of that.

The run of Triple Zero failures shows where a lack of investment and use of technology and its implementation, along with forward thinking, makes it constantly vulnerable to failure.

We are never going to stop unplanned power outages, from such things as the normal storms and tempest.

For decades, we have had on the landline phones, batteries to keep the system running if the grid power fails (No Break System).

This like some factories and radio and television installations may have some form of power generation to cut in and supply emergency power in the event of a loss of grid power (outage).

For decades we have had the “Uninterruptable Power Supply” (UPS); this will keep up power for computers etc. saving loss of data and enabling saving, until the battery is exhausted.

The time factor is dependent on the size of the battery bank.

We now have for solar installations massive capacity motive storage batteries.

It beggars’ belief that the Triple Zero and other systems cannot be run with redundancy, direct or as a UPS, from these batteries, which could easily run the systems for anything from days, to weeks.

The battery does not have to be charged, or maintained by solar grids on site, it can be kept topped up via the normal power grid, or back-up on site/ with hire power generators topping them up.

Marc Chick, Wangandary

State government's primary school laptop policy laughable

Expecting the lowest funded public schools in the country to provide students with laptops and tablet devices is laughable.

The Education Minister last week announced that from 2027 public primary schools will be required to provide electronic devices from existing supplies and budgets.

Not requiring parents to pay for tablets or laptops is a good thing, they should never have had to in the first place, but the Allan government is living in a dreamland if they think public schools have the budgets available to provide devices to all students when Victorian public schools are the lowest funded in the nation.

Instead of delivering the funding, Premier Allan has cut $2.4 billion from public schools through to 2031.

This is a disgrace and makes the claim that Victoria is the education state meaningless nonsense.

There is no way that Victoria’s public primary schools will be able to ensure students have access to up-to-date technology and secure devices unless the premier stops the con-job and fixes her public school funding mess.

Justin Mullaly, Australian Education Union Victorian branch president

Resources for families navigating social media

eSafety has launched a comprehensive package of new resources to help parents, carers, educators and young people prepare for social media age restrictions due to take effect on 10 December.

The new resources explain what is changing, why it matters, and how to support young people through the transition.

I strongly encourage parents, educators and young people to visit eSafety.gov.au, download our resources and register for a live webinar where we will explain the social media age restrictions and answer questions in sessions tailored for parents, carers and educators.

Delaying children’s access to social media accounts until age 16 will provide valuable extra time for them to learn and grow, free of the powerful, unseen forces of opaque algorithms and endless scroll.

It’s not a silver bullet and it won’t solve every safety issue kids face online.

But it is an important step that will give families and schools the opportunity to reset expectations, rebuild digital literacy and strengthen children’s emotional resilience before they enter high-risk online spaces.

Julie Inman Grant, eSafety Commissioner