Wednesday, 8 June 2022

Health system

Mr WALSH (Murray Plains) (14:18:588:): My question is to the Premier. David Edwards’s father, Alfred, died on 5 January in Swan Hill after his family tried in vain to call 000 for 35 to 40 minutes. Alfred Edwards of Swan Hill’s death has been raised multiple times with the government in both houses of Parliament, in public accounts and in the media. David confirms he has had no response from either the Premier or any minister. What has to happen for the Premier or his ministers to personally apologise to David and his family for the failures of the Victorian health system that cost their father’s life?

Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (14:19): I thank the member for Murray Plains for his question. I will search the record and make inquiries about whether that specific matter has been raised with me—

A member interjected.

Mr ANDREWS: and I will come to exactly that issue in just a moment.

The member for Brighton raised a number of tragic circumstances with me in an exchange at the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearing, and again to put it beyond any doubt, of course, as the Premier, as the Leader of the Government, not only do I apologise but I send my deepest sympathies and a commitment of support to any family that has been let down by any part of our health system, any part of our public sector, during these unprecedented times of pandemic, of record demand, of record furloughing and real pressure—real pressure—on our health system. So of course I extend on behalf of all Victorians and personally my apology, my regret, my sorrow, that that has occurred. Beyond the raising of the issue at PAEC, on the issue of whether there was an expectation of a response from me—a written response, for instance—as opposed to processes that would be coronial, potentially, would relate to Ambulance Victoria, could relate to the health service, I am more than happy to chase that up. I do not think we need to have arguments about whether when provided with details we follow up. We have always followed up and we always will, and any suggestion to the contrary is completely wrong—

Members interjecting.

Mr ANDREWS: Well, the shadow minister is in the gallery—wants to be perhaps a member of this chamber—mouthing things at me. At the end of the day—

Members interjecting.

Mr ANDREWS: In the gallery—sitting in the gallery. We are not sitting in the gallery; we are getting on and getting this done. It is a shame that the shadow minister was not mouthing things when her cabinet colleagues were cutting ambulance funding. You know, you lost your voice then too.

The SPEAKER: Order! Firstly, before calling the member on a point of order, I remind our friends from the Council who may be in the gallery not to participate in the proceedings of this place and the Premier not to refer to members in the gallery.

Ms Staley: On a point of order, Speaker, you have referred to the first part of my point of order, but the second part of my point of order is that question time is not an opportunity to attack the opposition. It is a time to answer questions, and the Premier had moved beyond answering the question.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier knows it is not an opportunity to attack the opposition.

Mr ANDREWS: I am happy to check whether the family was responded to potentially by the Minister for Emergency Services—

A member interjected.

Mr ANDREWS: Well, I will go and check, because one thing I have learned in my time in this place is I will not be lectured by that little coterie over there—anything but clinicians, anything but patients, all about the politics. You can scream all you want, but you never screamed when you were in the cabinet room, and you cut the budget year after year. Apparently everyone could do more with less and do better when you were a minister.

This is a tragedy. I have apologised. I have acknowledged the pain of this family, and I will chase up who has responded. And if people have not, I will make sure they do.

Mr R Smith interjected.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Warrandyte maybe was not in the chamber when I issued a warning to all members about not shouting across the chamber.

Mr WALSH (Murray Plains) (14:23): How many more fathers, sons, mothers or daughters like Alfred, Lawson and Phyllis have to die or face near-death experiences due to failures in Victoria’s health and ambulance systems under this government before the Premier finally takes responsibility for the crisis his government has caused?

Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (14:24): Well, firstly, it is ridiculous to suggest that boosting funding and recruiting thousands of additional paramedics and providing wage justice to ambulance paramedics has caused a crisis. There has been a global pandemic, something that the member conveniently forgets. If this thesis were accurate, one wonders: how was it that we were able to achieve the very best response times on record just before COVID turned up? Gee, was that something that was left to us by those opposite? No, it was not. It was through the hard work of our paramedics. As I have said to the Leader of the National Party and all of his colleagues: we fixed the mess created by them and we will fix the mess created by COVID. Be in no doubt about that.

For the sake of completeness, I am further advised that Stephen Leane, then the acting CEO of ESTA, has spoken to this family. That is my advice. If that is not correct, I will go and check the record. But Mr Leane has spoken to the family, so your suggestions, I believe, are incorrect.