Thursday, 7 April 2022

Questions without notice and ministers statements

Ambulance services

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:01): My question is to the Minister for Ambulance Services. Jodie from Melbourne’s west fell down the steps in her home and broke both her tibia and fibula. She was in excruciating pain. Her husband dialled 000 and after an initial delay finally got through to request an ambulance. Dispatchers could not tell Jodie’s husband when an ambulance would arrive, leaving Jodie to lie in agony as her husband called 000 multiple times, trying to find out when the ambulance would arrive. Over 5 hours later, at 2.30 in the morning, the ambulance did finally come. The government has been critical of Victorians who repeatedly dial 000, so I ask: what is the government’s policy for Victorians to do in situations like this?

Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (14:02): Can I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. Throughout the course of this week we have seen a theme to the Leader of the Opposition’s and his compatriots’ questions around catastrophising things that simply are not true. There is a pattern now emerging from the honourable Leader of the Opposition. They make stuff up on a regular basis. I have no doubt that there was—

Ms Staley: On a point of order, Speaker, the minister is debating the question, and I ask you to bring him back to answering it.

Ms Allan: On the point of order, Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition, in asking the question, made a claim that was inaccurate that the minister is entirely entitled to refute and respond to. That is entirely within the standing orders. The Manager of Opposition Business might not like that, but the minister should be allowed to continue to correct the false accusation from the Leader of the Opposition.

The SPEAKER: I remind the minister that it is not in order to attack the opposition, but it is indeed appropriate, if the minister wishes to, to reject the premise of a question.

Mr FOLEY: Thank you. If I am correct in my interpretation of what the honourable Leader of the Opposition’s question contained, he asserted straight up and blatantly incorrectly that this government calls on people not to call 000 and, more than that, that we are critical of people who do so. That is simply incorrect, and it follows a series of deliberate incorrect statements that those opposite have been making in recent days.

Ms Staley: On a point of order, Speaker, the minister has now asserted ‘deliberate incorrect statements’. That is very much the form of the house you are not meant to use, and I ask you not to have him verbal—

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the House!

Ms Staley: I would ask you to counsel the minister on his language.

The SPEAKER: Order! I do not uphold the point of order. I remind the minister, though, not to reflect on other members of the chamber.

Mr FOLEY: Absolutely, thank you for that guidance. But what we do know is that we are happy to respond to statements that are based on fact, and what we continually see from those opposite is that their stuff is not based on fact. We have never made the criticism that the honourable Leader of the Opposition asserts.

Mr Andrews: Never. Nor would we.

Mr FOLEY: Indeed nor would we, because we know that Victorians rely on the fantastic service delivered by our paramedics. We know that from the period of time from 2015 to 2019, when we rebuilt our paramedic and ambulance services immediately before the global pandemic, our ambulance services had the best performance time responses when it came to code 1 emergencies in their history. Then along came a one-in-100-year global pandemic that smashed the arrangements in our health services and in our ambulance services right across the country. We now know that that has seen over the last few months, indeed the last few years, a combination of huge demand coming through at the same time as currently some 1800 people in our health services being furloughed. So on the one hand we have huge demand; on the other hand we have infection prevention and control measures and furloughing of staff that make the delivery of that critical service so challenging. Yet our paramedics deliver day in, day out.

What we will do, whether it is through the recruitment of 700 extra paramedics last year—a record recruitment year for that organisation—or whether it is through the investment of $247 million in the service from last year’s budget, with further investment scheduled this year, is we will rebuild that service and we will rebuild the performance of Ambulance Victoria.

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:07): Jodie is traumatised by her experience. She is not a liar. She said:

In our time of need, it became acutely obvious nobody cared enough and this is a shocking realisation. Nobody cared enough—

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! When the house comes to order. I feel like it is actually not necessary to do this warning every question time, but members who shout across the chamber will be out without further warning. That goes for every question time from here on because I have to make that warning every question time.

Mr GUY: Jodie is traumatised by her experience. She is not a liar. She said:

In our time of need, it became acutely obvious nobody cared enough and this is a shocking realisation. Nobody cared enough to ensure the ambulance service in this state was adequately equipped, staffed 24 hours a day, every day of the year. We deserve better, my family deserved better, I deserved better.

Her words, not mine. With 11 ambulances this morning ramped at the Werribee Mercy Hospital, what does the minister have to say to Jodie, a western Melbourne resident who deserves so much better than the ambulance crisis he has failed to fix?

Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (14:08): Can I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his supplementary question, and yet again just respectfully suggest to the honourable Leader of the Opposition that nobody on this side of the house suggested Jodie was lying. Nobody on this side of the house has presented information in a deliberately mischievous and incorrect way. No-one on this side the house has played politics with people’s genuine suffering. No-one on this side of the house has cut ambulance funding. No-one on this side of the house has waged war with our paramedics, and no-one on this side of the house has run down the contribution of our paramedics and our healthcare professionals over the course of the last two years of unbelievable and unprecedented demand, stress and trauma on those services. My message to all Victorians is that what we have seen over the last two years is an unprecedented level of demand and pressure, which this government will fix.