Tuesday, 22 March 2022

Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority

Mr SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (14:32): My question is to the Premier. On 6 January this year, Suzie’s 12-year-old daughter suffered a severe seizure while at home in Tambo Upper. Suzie’s calls to 000 never made it through to ESTA and she was left speaking with a Telstra operator who was attempting to patch her call through while in crisis, before finally scooping her daughter up after a 15-minute waiting time and driving her to a hospital herself. Suzie’s daughter made it and she was okay, but this was a terrifying experience for her family, who had no idea the 000 system was so severely broken. Premier, what do you say to Suzie to explain the totally unacceptable delay given your government knew about the broken ESTA system back in 2016?

The SPEAKER: Earlier in question time I warned members about directing questions through the Chair. So the next time this happens, the question will get knocked out of order.

Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (14:33): I thank the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party for his question. I say to Suzie and her daughter—to their entire family—that I am very sorry that when they needed the system, the system was not there to provide them with the support that they needed. I am not questioning any of the version of events as put forward by the questioner, but I am not sure whether this might be a Telstra issue or a 000 ESTA issue. I think it would be appropriate to go and double-check that, and I will commit to the deputy leader to do that. Beyond that I would just say in more general terms—

A member interjected.

Mr ANDREWS: No, not a cup of tea. It is a serious question that has been asked, and I am providing you with a serious commitment to follow it up. If that is what you want me to do, I will do it. I apologise for letting interjections get the better of me. It is a serious matter, and we will look at it seriously—of course we will. I will just say in more general terms when you have got 4000 calls coming in a day, when you have unprecedented demand—and when I say ‘unprecedented’, I am talking about more calls than at any time ever, that are by and large attributable to a 1-in-100-year global pandemic—then any system will struggle. That is not an excuse, but it is an explanation.

Mr Southwick: On a point of order, Speaker, I ask you to bring the Premier back to answering the question. This was not relevant to the pandemic in that specific time limit but about a broken ESTA system back in 2016. This system has been broken since 2016, and the government have not fixed it.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Industry Support and Recovery! The question at the end of his question was a broad one, and the Premier was being relevant to it.

Mr ANDREWS: Indeed, Speaker. If I might, the question related to an incident on 6 January. Not 6 January 2016, I do not think; it was 6 January—

Ms Allan: This year.

Mr ANDREWS: And, look, my profound apology to the deputy leader if I am confused, but I thought he was talking about an incident, a very serious incident, where I have already said I regret and I apologise for any distress that family has felt as a result of the system not meeting their legitimate expectations. I have committed to following that up. Was that a Telstra telecommunications issue? Was it an ESTA capacity issue? Was it a dispatch issue in relation to the availability of an Ambulance Victoria asset to provide them with the care that they needed? I am glad things finished okay, but I again say how deeply sorry we are if the service did not meet their legitimate expectations.

I do not accept the characterisation of our ambulance service as offered by the deputy leader. What I will say is that at times of unprecedented demand it is not about making excuses, it is about understanding the challenge you face. It is about explaining the challenge you face and then doing something about it. In most recent times, and indeed over a lengthy period of time, this government has invested and reinvested and invested again in ambulances, in ESTA, in police, in fire—in all of our emergency services—and indeed all parts of our health system. We will continue to do that as we come out of this pandemic, knowing that the pandemic has done a lot of damage. The pandemic has seen a lot of things disrupted, a lot of things overloaded, a lot of things—systems and processes—put into very challenging circumstances. This family is not only in our thoughts, but they motivate us to make sure we do even better on the other side of this global event.

Mr SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (14:36): This is a direct quote from Suzie:

Every single day there is an alarming story, and we should not be accepting it. And now I have been a direct recipient of this crisis. We are a fit and healthy family but always want to know that, if required, the health system and services are available to us at an acceptable standard.

Premier, why has the government failed to provide a 000 system to an adequate standard?

Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (14:37): Well, I would direct the honourable member’s attention to a very simple fact. The advice I have is that ESTA met every one of its monthly benchmarks between 2016 and just before the pandemic. Indeed through large parts of the pandemic it was able to deliver against its well-understood metrics. Ambulance response times were the best that they had ever been. At a point, though, the workload becomes so overwhelming that any system will struggle. On the exact issue that the questioner has put to me: he is wrong, because between 2016 and right through much of the pandemic every benchmark was met every month. Now, that does not mean that we do not have to repair the damage the pandemic has done. It does not mean that we do not all have to strive to get back to that best-ever performance. The real point about it is who do you trust to do that: people who cut health funding or people who invest—people who cut health funding and cannot even admit it, or people who invest? We are going to get this done— (Time expired)