Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority
Ms CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:10): My question is to the Minister for Emergency Services. Minister, Graham Ashton’s report highlighted how your government kept ESTA at ‘arm’s length’. This distance, according to Mr Ashton:
… has reached a point where it has become difficult for ESTA to obtain sufficient support in the delivery of operational and corporate services and, importantly, make a convincing case to government for investment.
As such, Minister, do you agree that your government’s handling of ESTA has resulted in a lack of support and underfunding that led to the loss of lives while waiting on hold, or is Mr Ashton wrong in his assessment?
Ms SYMES (Northern Victoria—Leader of the Government, Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:10): Ms Crozier, you will note, because I would assume that you have read the report, that Mr Ashton’s report was at a point in time in October 2021. He goes to great length to point out the investment, the new management’s approach and the emergency services lens being brought to that organisation and indeed identifies that there have been improvements where they needed to be made in relation to the urgency and the immediate things that we needed to do to ensure that we could support the core business of the organisation, which is call taking and dispatch. His further recommendations go to longer term structural improvements to make sure that we have the support of a large government department for some of those back-of-house roles—procurement, HR and the like. That will, as he identified, embed long-term improvements for that organisation.
It is important to note that I do not want this organisation distracted by these long-term changes. I want them focused on call-taking speeds and dispatch so that we can make sure that we are hitting those benchmarks that this organisation so proudly delivered until a pandemic hit us. I am so grateful for their continued efforts with massive call demands because of the impact COVID has had on the community, which is impacting the whole health service. But this is the entry. ESTA is the entry to our health care. We know the pressures they are under, and we know the improvements they are making each and every day. As I think I have said in every one of my answers today, I will continue to stay focused on these issues and support this amazing organisation to provide the best service to Victorians.
Ms CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:12): Minister, I have just listened to your answer. The problems within ESTA have been well known for many years and well before COVID. You keep using COVID as the excuse, but the issues with ESTA were known in 2016. The issues within ESTA have been known for years. Minister, how can your government be trusted to implement these reforms, considering your track record of ignoring ESTA’s calls for help?
Ms SYMES (Northern Victoria—Leader of the Government, Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:13): The amnesia of your side on how you run a health system is just appalling. I am very confident that the Victorian public know who is best to lead a health system, and it ain’t you guys.