JACC has its work cut out for it

Updated: 2014-04-03 07:33

By Karl Wilson (China Daily USA)

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The Joint Agency Coordination Center has not gotten off to a good start if Wednesday's effort is anything to go on.

For journalists here in Perth covering the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, information has been fed through the PR machine at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, or AMSA, in Canberra that is still coordinating the sea and air search but not the flow of information.

That responsibility has now been handed off to the JACC, which was announced on Sunday by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who named retired former Australian defense force chief Angus Houston as its head.

On Tuesday, Houston met with the media to give his first news conference and outlined the JACC's role in making sure information is provided to the media, and, more important, that all the relatives of the 239 passengers and crew are kept fully informed.

No one denies that Houston and his team have their work cut out for them. This became evident on Wednesday when trying to get information about the visit to Perth by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

No one seems to know anything. This is the prime minister of Malaysia we are talking about, so one would have thought that information would be readily available.

Early this morning I e-mailed the JACC. Phone calls are not recommended as no one will answer them, and, if you wait long enough, a voice message tells you to send your request via e-mail.

My e-mail request, sent around 7 am that morning, was simple: When will the Malaysian PM be arriving in Perth? When will he meet the Australian PM? When will we be briefed by Houston and when will he go to Pearce RAAF base?

I did not expect an answer straightaway. I rang the AMSA to see if it was still doing the search updates. The lady at the other end said: "No we (the AMSA) are no longer doing that. That is the JACC's job."

Just after lunch I received the following e-mail:

Hi,

JACC has its work cut out for it

Regarding the visit by the Malaysian Prime Minister, please direct your questions directly to the Prime Minister's Office.

That was the Australian prime minister's office in Canberra. A quick call to the PM's office on the other side of the country, and I was told: "Sorry, we don't know. The JACC has all that information."

I told the guy on the other end of the phone that the JACC told me to ring the PM's office.

"Oh," he said. "Hang on. Right, all we know is the Malaysian PM will arrive in Perth late tonight ... very late."

He did not know the time, if he would be flying on a commercial or military flight, but he did know that "Prime Minister Abbott will not be greeting him at the airport."

I was told to keep trying the JACC office in Perth for Najib's itinerary.

I hope the JACC sorts its media responses out before relatives start arriving.

Contact the writer at karlwilson@chinadailyapac.com

 JACC has its work cut out for it

An Australian ship heads toward a floating object sighted from the Australian Navy ship HMAS Success as it searches in the southern Indian Ocean for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 on Wednesday. Reuters

(China Daily USA 04/03/2014 page5)

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