AusAlert
New research finds 1 in 9 Australians missed the AusAlert test, with higher failure rates among iPhone users, older phones and smaller states.
1 in 9 Australians Never Got the Emergency Alert. Almost None of Them Know Why.
An emergency alert system has one job. Reach everyone, every time.
It didn't.
New research from Airteam, conducted by Primara Research via a nationally representative survey of 1,000 Australian adults, finds that 11% of Australians, roughly 1 in 9, received no alert when the AusAlert message went out. Of that group, 87% had their phone switched on and connected. The failure wasn't at the user's end. It was upstream, in the system itself.
This isn't a story about people missing a message. It's a story about a message that didn't arrive.
Almost nobody has an excuse, and almost nobody has an answer
If the phone was off, the explanation is simple. For the overwhelming majority who missed the alert, it isn't.
- Only 13% had their phone off or in airplane mode.
- 49% have no idea why they missed it.
- 16% assume it's because their phone is old.
That leaves 87% of missed alerts with no clean explanation on the user's side at all. When almost nine in ten failures can't be traced to something the person did or didn't do, the fault sits with delivery, not behaviour.
“An emergency alert system is only as good as its weakest delivery point, and right now almost nine in ten people who missed out can't explain why,” says Rich Atkinson, Executive Director of Airteam.
The gaps aren't random, they're geographic
Miss rates aren't flat across the country. They rise as the states get smaller.
- NSW: 9%
- VIC: 9%
- QLD: 11%
- WA: 14%
- SA: 14%
- Other smaller states: 21%
The two largest states sit at the national floor. The smallest jurisdiction misses at more than double that rate. A system meant to work uniformly is instead tracking population density, exactly the pattern you'd expect if coverage and testing concentrate where the most people are.
The most common phone in the country is underperforming
If reach scaled with market share, the biggest platform should have the best result. It doesn't.
iPhone users, more than half the population, missed the alert at 14%, above the 11% national average.
“It's counterintuitive,” Atkinson says. “iPhones are the most widely used device in Australia, and you'd expect alert systems to be built and tested around the largest user base first. Instead, the most common phone on the market is failing more often than average, not less.”
Older phones are a risk, but new ones aren't a guarantee
Age is a factor, but it doesn't explain the whole problem, since even the newest phones aren't fully covered.
- Newer handsets: 8% missed the alert
- Four to six years old: 16% missed the alert
- Six years or older: 35% missed the alert
The risk doubles with every step up in device age. But an 8% failure rate on brand-new phones means the floor for this system isn't zero for anyone. It's a baseline failure rate layered under an age penalty.
Even arriving isn't the same as working
Delivery is only half the job. The alert also has to explain itself.
- Only 66% of people who received an alert also received an on-screen message.
- 23% got an alert with no explanation of what it was for.
“The data shows two separate failures,” Atkinson says, “alerts that never arrive, and alerts that arrive without enough information to act on. Both erode the same thing, trust that the next alert will actually reach people and tell them what to do.”
The cost isn't just this alert, it's the next one
Among those who missed the message entirely, 41% now say they're worried they could miss a real emergency in future.
That number is the actual damage. A missed test alert is recoverable. A population that no longer trusts the system to reach them is not, at least not without deliberate work to rebuild it.
“This isn't a minor inconvenience, it's a critical safety failure,” Atkinson says. “Four in ten people who missed this alert are now worried they won't be warned about a real emergency, and a system like this only succeeds if people trust and respond to it.”
The alert was a test. The trust it spent wasn't.
Survey result
Question - Did you receive the AusAlert test message sent at 2pm today?
Results by generation
| Comparison criteria | Gen Z | Millennial | Gen X | Boomers | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No, I got nothing at all | 10.1% | 11.8% | 11.4% | 10.2% | 11% |
| Not sure | 1.3% | 2.4% | 2.8% | 2.1% | 2.2% |
| Yes, more than once | 3.9% | 4.8% | 1.9% | 1.1% | 3.3% |
| Yes, once | 84.6% | 81% | 83.9% | 86.6% | 83.5% |
Results by gender
| Comparison criteria | Female | Male | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| No, I got nothing at all | 12.6% | 8% | 11% |
| Not sure | 1.5% | 3.4% | 2.2% |
| Yes, more than once | 2.5% | 4.9% | 3.3% |
| Yes, once | 83.4% | 83.7% | 83.5% |
Results by state
| Comparison criteria | Female | Male | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| No, I got nothing at all | 12.6% | 8% | 11% |
| Not sure | 1.5% | 3.4% | 2.2% |
| Yes, more than once | 2.5% | 4.9% | 3.3% |
| Yes, once | 83.4% | 83.7% | 83.5% |
Question - If you received nothing, do you know why?
Results by generation
| Comparison criteria | Gen Z | Millennial | Gen X | Boomers | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I had no signal or poor reception at the time | 0% | 4.5% | 4.2% | 5.3% | 3.6% |
| My phone is older or may not be compatible | 30.4% | 9.1% | 16.7% | 10.5% | 15.5% |
| My phone was off or on airplane mode | 17.4% | 13.6% | 12.5% | 5.3% | 12.7% |
| My phone was on and working, I just got nothing | 39.1% | 47.7% | 62.5% | 47.4% | 49.1% |
| Not sure | 13% | 25% | 4.2% | 31.6% | 19.1% |
Results by gender
| Comparison criteria | Female | Male | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| I had no signal or poor reception at the time | 3.7% | 3.6% | 3.6% |
| My phone is older or may not be compatible | 13.4% | 21.4% | 15.5% |
| My phone was off or on airplane mode | 12.2% | 14.3% | 12.7% |
| My phone was on and working, I just got nothing | 52.4% | 39.3% | 49.1% |
| Not sure | 18.3% | 21.4% | 19.1% |
Results by state
| Comparison criteria | NSW | QLD | SA | VIC | WA | Other | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I had no signal or poor reception at the time | 3.8% | 6.2% | 0% | 0% | 15.4% | 0% | 3.6% |
| My phone is older or may not be compatible | 7.7% | 25% | 25% | 16.7% | 15.4% | 0% | 15.5% |
| My phone was off or on airplane mode | 7.7% | 18.8% | 8.3% | 8.3% | 0% | 50% | 12.7% |
| My phone was on and working, I just got nothing | 57.7% | 25% | 58.3% | 50% | 46.2% | 40% | 49.1% |
| Not sure | 23.1% | 25% | 8.3% | 25% | 23.1% | 10% | 19.1% |
Question - Knowing this was only a test, how do you feel about not receiving it?
Results by generation
| Comparison criteria | Gen Z | Millennial | Gen X | Boomers | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annoyed the system didn't work for me | 13% | 13.6% | 12.5% | 21.1% | 14.5% |
| Not sure how I feel | 0% | 11.4% | 0% | 10.5% | 6.4% |
| Relieved, I'd rather not get the alerts | 8.7% | 6.8% | 4.2% | 10.5% | 7.3% |
| Unbothered, I don't rely on it | 21.7% | 27.3% | 41.7% | 36.8% | 30.9% |
| Worried, I might miss a real emergency alert | 56.5% | 40.9% | 41.7% | 21.1% | 40.9% |
Results by gender
| Comparison criteria | Female | Male | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annoyed the system didn't work for me | 17.1% | 7.1% | 14.5% |
| Not sure how I feel | 7.3% | 3.6% | 6.4% |
| Relieved, I'd rather not get the alerts | 7.3% | 7.1% | 7.3% |
| Unbothered, I don't rely on it | 23.2% | 53.6% | 30.9% |
| Worried, I might miss a real emergency alert | 45.1% | 28.6% | 40.9% |
Results by state
| Comparison criteria | NSW | QLD | SA | VIC | WA | Other | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annoyed the system didn't work for me | 15.4% | 12.5% | 25% | 8.3% | 23.1% | 0% | 14.5% |
| Not sure how I feel | 3.8% | 0% | 0% | 8.3% | 7.7% | 30% | 6.4% |
| Relieved, I'd rather not get the alerts | 7.7% | 0% | 8.3% | 12.5% | 0% | 20% | 7.3% |
| Unbothered, I don't rely on it | 15.4% | 56.2% | 33.3% | 25% | 61.5% | 30% | 30.9% |
| Worried, I might miss a real emergency alert | 57.7% | 31.2% | 33.3% | 45.8% | 7.7% | 20% | 40.9% |