Tuesday, 6 February 2024

Ambulance services

John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (14:34): My question is to the Premier. The latest Ambulance Victoria annual report shows that the number of full-time MICA paramedics has fallen to 581, which is less than back in 2015. Ambulance union secretary Danny Hill has stated there is ‘no doubt’ MICA faces a crisis. As a result of falling numbers, regional Victorian communities will completely lose access to critical MICA paramedics. Why is Labor putting the lives of Victorians at risk because of their mismanagement?

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: The Leader of the House will come to order!

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:35): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. We are incredibly proud of our hardworking, high-performing paramedics, and we are most certainly supporting them with funding but also other programs like the paramedic practitioner program that we are rolling out. Recognising that the role of a paramedic has changed, just as the health needs of the community have changed and how we need to reform our health system, particularly following the one-in-100-year pandemic, we are providing also support for more paramedics. We have more paramedics working now. There are more MICA paramedics, and there are also more paramedics coming into the training system with a specialist training program that we run in partnership with Victoria University.

I will acknowledge that, like many aspects of our health system, our hardworking paramedics, particularly following the one-in-100-year pandemic, are feeling pressures. However, I will also point to the performance data that was released just last week by the minister, where we have seen improvement –

Members interjecting.

Jacinta ALLAN: Thank you. I thank my colleagues for reminding me that it is always important to have these discussions based on facts and evidence. This is an important point, and I was going to go to this. The Leader of the Opposition made a fake assertion in his question, and that reminds me of the fake letter from paramedics that the former Liberal government sent out during their war on paramedics. It reminds me of the fake ambulance that those opposite were running around town with during the last election.

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, this is an important question about an important matter, and the Premier is straying from the question entirely. I would ask you to bring the Premier back to the question.

The SPEAKER: I ask the Premier to come back to the question.

Jacinta ALLAN: Again, going back to those facts, we have invested an additional $2 billion since we came to office. Since we had to undo the damage that was done by those opposite following their war on our paramedics, we have invested an additional $2 billion, we have grown the number of Ambulance Victoria on-road staff by more than 50 per cent and we will continue to support our hardworking paramedics – not run around with the fake news, the fake letters and the fake ambulances like those opposite.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Member for Gippsland South, I am giving you a warning even though I said I was not going to give warnings today. I can hear you from here. I would ask you to cease interjecting.

John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (14:38): Whistleblowers say that shifts are being dumped because Ambulance Victoria cannot afford to pay for them. How many Victorians will die because Labor cannot afford to pay paramedics?

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Member for South Barwon, you know what I am going to say. You can leave the chamber for 90 minutes.

Member for South Barwon withdrew from chamber.

The SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition, I would ask you to rephrase your question. You have asked a hypothetical question.

John PESUTTO: Daniel Andrews used to ask.

Members interjecting.

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

John PESUTTO: Whistleblowers say that shifts are being dumped because Ambulance Victoria cannot afford to pay for them. Has the Premier received any advice from her office or her department on deaths that may arise, tragically, because this Labor government cannot afford to pay for paramedics?

Mary-Anne Thomas: On a point of order, Speaker, again you have asked the Leader of the Opposition not to deal in hypotheticals. As I understand it, he is asking the Premier about something that has not happened. I ask that you rule it out of order.

The SPEAKER: I will rule that the question is in order because the Leader of the Opposition asked if the Premier had received any advice, which is different from a hypothetical question.

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:40): In answering the Leader of the Opposition’s supplementary question, he asked me for evidence and advice I had received on something that had not happened yet – on something that was in the future. It is pretty clear from the course of question time today that the more pressure the Leader of the Opposition is under, the more he makes up – the more he just comes in here and makes things up time and time again –

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, this question went to government funding and the impact thereof. It is not an opportunity, on relevance, for the Premier to make nasty asides.

The SPEAKER: That is not a point of order, Manager of Opposition Business. The Premier was being relevant, but I do ask the Premier not to stray from the questions.

Jacinta ALLAN: The fact is this: $2 billion of additional investment for our hardworking paramedics. The number of Ambulance Victoria’s on-road staff has increased by more than 50 per cent. We have 131 MICA interns currently going through their training right now, and we thank them for their commitment to this incredibly important profession that serves our community, saves lives and deserves a lot better respect than it is getting from those opposite.