Tuesday, 24 May 2022

Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority

Mr BATTIN (Gembrook) (14:17): My question is to the Premier. The inspector-general for emergency management’s (IGEM) legislative role is to monitor, investigate and report on ESTA’s performance to investigate adverse events, particularly the deaths of 21 Victorians. How many times has the government referred ESTA to the inspector-general in the last two years?

Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (14:17): I take it this question is in my capacity representing the health minister today.

Members interjecting.

Mr ANDREWS: Okay, the question is directed to me as the Premier—whether as the Premier or as the acting health minister, for the purposes of question time I was simply trying to clarify. If I can get you further information, I will. I am very conscious of my obligations not to mislead the house in any way. It is not my understanding, although I am happy to—

Members interjecting.

Mr ANDREWS: Well, the member has asked a question, and I think inherent in the question is an error. What I am saying is before I assert that I am going to get it checked. But it is my understanding that the IGEM does not need to be told by the government of the day to do his job. He does his job: he has standing powers, standing roles and functions.

Members interjecting.

Mr ANDREWS: No, the clear inference in the question—

A member interjected.

Mr ANDREWS: You write the questions, and you are not much good at it. If you want to assert that the IGEM needs to be told to do things, I think you are wrong.

Ms Staley: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, question time is not an opportunity to attack the opposition. The Premier in his last sentence was repeatedly defying your request that people not use ‘you’, and I ask you to ask him to stop doing it.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: On the point of order, members more broadly should not use the word ‘you’. It is a reflection on the Chair. The Premier was being relevant to the question.

Mr ANDREWS: Through the Chair, I would simply make the point that it is has been put to me by the honourable member that the inspector-general for emergency management cannot do anything without being told by the government of the day. That is simply wrong. Conscious of my obligations, I am happy to go and double- and triple-check that, and I will ask the minister, who is in fact, I believe, the Minister for Emergency Services, to whom the IGEM reports. And the thing is they cannot have it again. They quoted the act, and they have got it wrong, I believe. I will go and double-check that, and if I can relevantly add to my answer, I will.

Mr BATTIN (Gembrook) (14:20): The government can refer to the inspector-general any of those concerns as legislated. Given that since 2016 concerns about ESTA’s performance have been raised with the government by Ambulance Victoria, Victoria Police, the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, the CFA and Fire Rescue Victoria, why did your government never order the inspector-general to investigate ESTA’s performance given Victorians were dying waiting for an ambulance?

Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (14:21): In 1 minute I do not know that I can deal with each of the litany of errors and assertions that are plainly false within that excuse of a question. You have been found to be wrong. Before you quote the act, go and read it. That would be a good thing to do. And on behalf of the inspector-general for emergency management, let me make it very, very clear that in my dealings with him he does not need to be told to do anything. He is a first-class public servant, someone with decades of experience. The member for Gembrook, as is his way, might want to malign him as a public servant and a member of our emergency services family. He has got form maligning people who work every day to keep us safe. But I am not having any of that. The IG does a great job. He has got the powers he needs and a determination to do his job properly.

Mr Battin interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member for Gembrook is warned.