Thursday, 12 May 2022

Questions without notice and ministers statements

Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:01): My question is to the Minister for Ambulance Services. In announcing the Ashton review the government said Mr Ashton would:

consult key stakeholders across the emergency services sector and will deliver the review findings and recommendations to government early next year—

this year. Yesterday when asked, the Premier did not say whether he had read the Ashton report, so I ask: given the government’s terms of reference explicitly include ambulance services, has the Minister for Ambulance Services now read it?

Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (14:02): Interestingly enough, that matter came up this morning at an opening of an ambulance service. And guess where that ambulance service was?

A member: Where?

Mr FOLEY: Templestowe. Guess who closed an ambulance service in Templestowe in 2013? Guess whose electorate it is?

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! When the house comes to order! Members are going to be removed without further warning.

Mr Guy: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance—

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Guy: On relevance, Speaker, I asked a question—

Mr Andrews: Ambulances you asked about.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier will come to order.

Mr Guy: I asked a question about the Ashton report and people who are dying—dying—in Victoria today. I think the response from the minister is not fitting of a question of that seriousness.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Deputy Premier!

Mr Guy: I asked a question about a contemporary report to the minister this year, a response in relation to people dying in the health system. The minister is clearly not addressing the issue that I raised—the Ashton report, addressing the deaths of 15 Victorians—and I ask you to bring him back to answering a very serious and sensible question.

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has only just begun his answer. I trust that he will answer the question that has been asked.

Mr FOLEY: Thank you, Speaker. As I have sought to explain to the Leader of the Opposition on a number of occasions, the emergency services portfolio responds to the emergency services minister. The emergency services minister has addressed this issue on a number of occasions. Now, in terms of how a report that the former chief commissioner, Graham Ashton, has provided to the emergency services minister, that is currently being considered through government processes and will indeed receive—

Mr Guy: On a further point of order, Speaker, on relevance again, it is a straightforward question about a contemporary report that I have asked the minister about—a contemporary report. I have asked the minister to address a question: has he read it?

The SPEAKER: Order! I understand the question and I was listening carefully to the minister’s answer. He is being relevant to the question that has been asked.

Mr FOLEY: Thank you, honourable Speaker. The Minister for Emergency Services has addressed this particular issue, and of course in terms of the preparation of the Ashton report you would expect all the services that ESTA has to deal with—be they fire, be they ambulance, be they health, be they SES and others—have all been engaged. In terms of how that process then plays out as through normal ministerial accountability processes, a government response will be forthcoming. That response will be led by and ultimately published by the Minister for Emergency Services. What it will do is build on the more than $333 million investment that this government has invested in her portfolio—as has been reflected in the budget papers, which the honourable Leader of the Opposition might want to reflect on. In those he will see that there is allocation for 400 further staff in that allocation process, which the Minister for Emergency Services will have a responsibility to deliver with. That will assist other ministers in other portfolios, such as my portfolios in health and ambulance services, which will allow us to do things like open new ambulance services and which will allow us to rebuild a process whereby, after having achieved the best outcomes in ambulance service response times in Victoria’s history in 2019, only then to see the devastating effects of the global pandemic, we will have the ability to once again work in cooperation with our ambulances, our health service staff and our other health service professionals to rebuild and redeliver world’s-best services and country’s-best services through our ambulance services. And we will not cut them; we will keep your ambulance service open. (Time expired)

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:07): Professor John Wilson, the outgoing president of the Royal Australian College of Physicians and a senior doctor of the Alfred, quit his post after 30 years, saying he despaired for his colleagues and feared there could be a mass exodus of highly skilled, burnt-out doctors and nurses from Victorian hospitals unless issues concerning their welfare and working conditions were urgently addressed.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! People will be asked to leave the chamber.

Mr GUY: Professor Wilson said:

We’ve got absolutely unacceptable ambulance ramping, staff that are burnt out and unable to service the needs of the community …

Minister, if the government has a report that may help fix this crisis, why are you failing to release it straightaway?

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. He personalised that in terms of ‘Why wouldn’t the Minister for Health’—I assume he said—‘release the report?’. Well, because the report is not to the Minister for Health. It is pretty simple stuff. The report is to the Minister for Emergency Services. But what is important for the Minister for Health is the delivery of services.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Ferntree Gully and the Minister for Fishing and Boating can leave the chamber for the period of 1 hour. The Minister for Ambulance Services to continue his answer, without interjections.

Member for Ferntree Gully and Minister for Fishing and Boating withdrew from chamber.

Mr FOLEY: Thank you, honourable Speaker. In terms of the arrangements that apply in something like normal ministerial accountability processes, a full response together with the report will be released in due course, as the Minister for Emergency Services has made clear on a number of occasions. It is not that difficult a concept. There is a minister responsible for ESTA. That minister is doing a great job on the back of record funding— (Time expired)