Wednesday, 5 February 2025

 Emma KEALY (Lowan) (14:33): My question is to the Minister for Health. Minister, the Little Desert bushfire burnt to within 350 metres of the Grampians Health Dimboola campus. Why weren’t all the patients, aged care residents and staff of the Dimboola campus evacuated when the emergency evacuation order was issued for Dimboola?

 Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:33): I am very happy to answer the question from the member for Lowan. Before I start can I take this opportunity once again to thank all of those – our first responders, our firefighters and our volunteers – who are on the ground right now continuing to fight active fires in the Grampians region. Members of the health department are active members of incident management teams right across the state and work very, very closely with our health services to ensure at all times that decisions are made in the best interests of the health and wellbeing of people that may be patients at any given time in our health system. The health services work with EMV to make sure that patients and workers are safe. That is their number one responsibility. The decision about whether to evacuate a hospital or a public sector aged care facility is a complex one, and it is made by experts. It is not made based on ill-informed information from a politician; it is made based on expert advice.

Emma Kealy: On a point of order, Speaker, the minister’s response must be factual. Emergency evacuation orders are issued by the government based on expert advice, and therefore I ask for the minister to be factual in her response.

The SPEAKER: I cannot determine the facts of an answer. The minister was being relevant to the question.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: I think it is really important to be very clear –

Members interjecting.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: You asked a question; listen to the answer.

The SPEAKER: Member for Lowan! Leader of the House! Member for Lowan, you have asked your question, and I know that you have a supplementary. I am sure you do not want to leave the chamber and you would like to ask your supplementary. I ask you to be respectful to the member on their feet. Minister for Health, address your answer through the Chair.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: I feel very strongly about this because I want to be very clear to everyone in this house that emergency management decisions are made by experts on the ground, they are not made by politicians in government. I know it has been a long time since they were in government – and indeed the member for Lowan has never been in government – but politicians do not make these operational decisions.

Emma Kealy: On a point of order, Speaker, you reprimanded me for making comments over the table. I ask you to ask the Premier to oblige with the same respect. It works both ways.

The SPEAKER: That is not a point of order. I invite all members, including members at the table and the Premier, to cease interjecting while the minister is on her feet.

Emma Kealy: On a different point of order, Speaker, responding to questions is not a time to attack the opposition. Locals are very keen to get an answer about why the hospital was not evacuated during an evacuation order.

The SPEAKER: I ask members to be succinct in their points of order. I ask the minister not to attack the opposition and to come back to the answer, please.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: Let me reiterate that a decision to evacuate the site or not is based on the best information that is available at the time from EMV and agencies including the CFA. There are established emergency management processes in place, and the decision-makers are officials who are on the ground making those decisions. That is the way it is and that is the way it should be. These decisions are based on the best outcomes for patients and workers. Their safety is always the number one priority.

Emma Kealy: On a point of order, Speaker, the question was why the patients and residents and staff were not evacuated – why – not who made the decisions. Why weren’t they evacuated?

The SPEAKER: Member for Lowan, I ask you to make your points of order succinctly. The minister was being relevant to the question. The minister has concluded her answer.

 Emma KEALY (Lowan) (14:38): When the ‘Watch and act’ alert was issued for Dimboola earlier that day, Grampians Health management in Ballarat did not make any plans to evacuate Dimboola hospital. Family members –

A member: How do you know that?

Emma KEALY: Because they were not evacuated.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Climate Action will leave the chamber for half an hour. The member for Sunbury can leave the chamber for half an hour. The member for Laverton can leave the chamber for half an hour.

Minister for Climate Action and members for Sunbury and Laverton withdrew from chamber.

The SPEAKER: The member for Lowan has asked a supplementary question, and I ask the minister to allow her to complete her supplementary question in silence, and allow the minister to answer in silence.

Emma KEALY: When the ‘Watch and act’ alert was issued for Dimboola earlier that day, Grampians Health management in Ballarat did not make any plans to evacuate Dimboola hospital. Family members and courageous staff that stayed to care for residents and patients say that the lives of residents, patients and staff were put at unnecessary and unacceptable risk. Who in the Allan Labor government will be held responsible for this gross negligence of care which put so many lives at risk?

 Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:40): The supplementary question asked by the member for Lowan is based on a lot of hearsay and supposition and not on actual fact. Let me be very clear: the decision to evacuate a health facility is a very, very serious one where the actual health needs and the conditions, the frailty and the risks associated with evacuation are all considered. I can tell you that on the day there were many active conversations being had by the people that are best placed to make those decisions, including Grampians Health. So I reject the member’s supplementary question. We proudly stand here in support of our emergency management commissioner, Emergency Management Victoria and all of our first responders who are fighting right now, on the ground, these terrible bushfires.