Tuesday, 14 October 2025

 Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (13:27): Pursuant to standing order 23.22, I table a report into the inquiry into Ambulance Victoria, including appendices, extracts and proceedings, and a minority report from the Legal and Social Issues Committee, and I present the transcripts of evidence. I move:

That the transcripts of evidence be tabled and the report be published.

Motion agreed to.

Joe McCRACKEN: I move:

That the Council take note of the report.

Ambulance Victoria is in crisis. There is no other way to describe it. This report has a number of findings and recommendations to government to deal with the extensive and widespread dysfunction which permeates through the organisation. It is a toxic workplace culture characterised by nepotism, bullying, harassment and gaslighting; an environment where those who are in a clique get promoted; and an environment where those whistleblowers and others who raise legitimate workplace concerns are pressured, their workplace conditions made so difficult they are forced to resign or go out on WorkCover. Fear and intimidation are used as tools for power and control. This was evidenced by the fact that there were dozens of confidential and ‘name withheld’ submissions. Paramedics feel stressed and overburdened. Many have had to take extended leave due to extreme mental pain.

In the report the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission conducted, there were many, many recommendations. Few of them have actually been implemented; almost no progress has been made. The establishment of a workplace standards unit in Ambulance Victoria has also made little impact. We have seen witnesses – some senior executives from Ambulance Victoria – mislead the committee of inquiry. The committee made the decision to recall these witnesses, and the matter, I can confirm, has been referred to the Ombudsman. Leadership has been a revolving door of CEOs in recent years, with instability plaguing the organisation. The board lacks paramedicine experience, and a skills-based approach should be considered very carefully by the Minister for Ambulance Services. But in the end who actually suffers? It is patient outcomes.

Many targets are not being met. Ambulance ramping is resulting in serious clinical outcomes, sometimes even fatalities. Paramedics are doing their absolute best, and I pay tribute to and thank them. It is hard, gruelling work, and I thank every paramedic who turns up to work, serving others and ultimately saving lives. Their work should be respected, but paramedics are finding it difficult to access even basic workplace rights, such as appropriate information on their pay slips, let alone having pay periods match up with rosters. 000 call taking is not fully effective, being overly cautious, resulting in resources which could be more effectively used. This happens when there is no clinical oversight.

I want to thank the committee staff for their tireless work, and I acknowledge the constructive way my colleagues in the chamber who are members of the committee have worked. I thank them for that. If we are to see real reform, real change needs to occur. The ambulance system in Victoria is on life support, and it is patients and paramedics that are bearing the brunt of an organisation that does not appear to serve its purpose.

 Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (13:31): I rise as a member of the Legal and Social Issues Committee to make some remarks on this report into Ambulance Victoria. At the outset, I say that we know that many Victorians rely on the paramedics at Ambulance Victoria in times of their most acute and pressing need, and these paramedics are among the most dedicated and hardworking servants of the Victorian community. They deserve our support and respect for the work that they do. I think government members who participated in this inquiry want to very, very clearly state our support for the work that paramedics do every day. We do not want the critiques of the organisational practices and issues at Ambulance Victoria to in any way detract from or undermine our support for our paramedics.

The report does make it clear that there are, and have been, some very serious issues with the organisational culture at Ambulance Victoria. The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission report from 2021 highlighted many of these. There are many efforts across the organisation trying to make good progress, and more work needs to be done. This report is not intended to cast a shadow on the good work of many but put a spotlight on the failings of a few. We do have a new chief executive officer, an important opportunity to refresh the organisation. We hope that this organisational change leads to more optimism about the future.

I just want to say one other thing. There was some worrying evidence that was given that had to be corrected in the course of the inquiry, and I just wanted to remark upon the fact that, as a matter of principle, we do as a Parliament and as the Council need to make sure that witnesses to our parliamentary committees give honest evidence. It was disappointing to see that evidence on a contentious issue from 2021 needed to be corrected, and we should take seriously any instances of knowingly false or misleading evidence being provided to a parliamentary committee.

 Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (13:33): The ambulance system in the state of Victoria is broken and it needs major reform. First of all, I want to start out by saying that individual paramedics are doing an incredible job, but they are working within a broken system: a culture of bullying, a culture where staff are underpaid, a culture where they are not able to juggle rostering to meet the demands of a modern life.

This was the first committee – I have been on many committees now – that I have ever been on where witnesses have misled the Parliament and had to be recalled to make corrections, and it was because of the most extraordinary reasons. I really just want to highlight that misleading a parliamentary committee is actually a serious offence. It is something that is extraordinary – it is a huge disrespect of democracy – and we do not have actually have a clear way of addressing that these days. Does Sally, the Usher of the Black Rod, take them down to the parliamentary prison and lock them up? No, you cannot do that these days. What actually does happen if you mislead a Parliament?

We also heard incredible evidence of cover-ups, and you can read about that in the report. I think it is absolutely worrying when there are two sets of standards, one for the general public and then one for the paramedics that have actually broken the law.

I want to thank the committee staff for all the incredible work that they do and thank our colleagues and incredible chair Mr Joe McCracken – hear, hear to him. I am looking forward to seeing some changes that are really needed in the days ahead.

 Anasina GRAY-BARBERIO (Northern Metropolitan) (13:35): I would like to, as a member of the Legal and Social Issues Committee, offer a short contribution on this inquiry. I would firstly like to begin by thanking the secretariat and their whole team for the hard work that they have put into this inquiry – my thanks and appreciation to all of them. I would like to thank the chair for his work in leading this inquiry, and I also would like to thank everybody that has contributed to this inquiry, whether it was through submissions or appearing before the committee at hearings. It was not always easy to present their evidence to the committee due to their own experiences with Ambulance Victoria, but I really appreciate the courage of so many members of the public as well as Ambulance Victoria in presenting their accounts and experiences with Ambulance Victoria.

I also would like to say that this report overall is an important avenue for the government to take on what we heard as a committee: that the system does need improvement and there is an opportunity to improve systems so that our Ambulance Victoria frontline workers can do the job that they are tasked to do, and that is to save lives and ensure that patients that are calling on their expertise and service are able to be cared for with integrity, compassion and empathy. The Victorian Greens support the work of Ambulance Victoria workers and appreciate their contributions as well to the overall inquiry.

 Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (13:37): I am also grateful for the opportunity to rise and share a few comments on what has been a very interesting inquiry, that of the Legal and Social Issues Committee into Ambulance Victoria. At the outset I do want to acknowledge all of the submitters and all of the people who came and appeared before the committee and gave evidence. In some cases it was a very trying, difficult thing for them to do, and I commend them for their fortitude in speaking to us in the open and compassionate way in which they did. I would also like to acknowledge all colleagues, including the chair. It was at times a good, robust discussion that we had, as it should be. I would also like to acknowledge the secretariat for their extensive work to support us throughout this process.

I would like to reiterate a comment made by Mr Batchelor at the outset of his contribution, that this is an inquiry that has looked at some very real issues – some issues that have been addressed and some issues that are being addressed at the moment – but none of the criticisms of this report should be read as in any way undermining or denigrating the hardworking paramedics or indeed those executive staff or other staff within the organisation who are doing their best to change that culture. It is important for us to acknowledge that where there are issues, and we have identified various issues in this report, steps are also being taken. I would not want this report to demoralise the work of those within the organisation who are trying to drive that change that we all very much want to see. This report comes in the wake of the far more extensive Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission review and provides some additional commentary on that. I also note the extensive rollout of several measures in this year’s budget, which is also aimed at supporting our ambulance services. There is much more to say, and I look forward to saying that at a later date.

 Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (13:39): I also welcome the opportunity to speak on the Ambulance Victoria inquiry. I also want to thank the chair Mr McCracken, my colleagues and the whole parliamentary inquiry team for their efforts, because it was an extensive inquiry. It was a very, at times, enlightening and distressing inquiry, and I think you will see this in the actual report. There were a number of people that did not even feel comfortable to have their details in. They wanted to put in confidential reports or partially confidential reports because they did not feel safe in coming forward in this inquiry.

I think that the bravery and courage of everybody that made contributions needs to be acknowledged.

Also, as has been noted in this place, there were a number of senior people who gave testimony and their details had to be recalled. Those things are now under investigation with the Ombudsman. This is an incredibly important issue, which has been highlighted already in this chamber, and the issue shows us that we have a situation with an inquiry where there are genuine details of concern and that there are some that are still prepared to come in and to mislead us in an inquiry. I think we will see how that unfolds with the investigation.

But it is very clear that there are ongoing issues and have been major issues of bullying and intimidation in the workplace and that it is not consistent across the places – there were different testimonies across the whole of Victoria, so it really did depend on where people were coming from as to how extensive their experience was in particular situations. But I am very pleased that we have been able to have such a thorough investigation and inquiry into these issues, and this report is definitely worth a read for every single parliamentarian.

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (13:41): I rise to speak to the report tabled today and an important inquiry that the Parliament undertook, an inquiry that the Labor Party voted against. And I am pleased that we were able to, because it has highlighted a lot of issues. As the chair’s foreword says, the governance failures run deep, and indeed that is the evidence that we heard through the numerous submissions and the witnesses that came before the inquiry. Can I say at the outset: I would like to also acknowledge the work of the secretariat, who put this together and assisted this thorough inquiry.

What was concerning throughout the inquiry was the number of submissions that were provided to the committee that showed a distrust of the executive of Ambulance Victoria and the toxic culture despite the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission report that was undertaken several years ago – and still the failure of Ambulance Victoria to undertake all those recommendations. One of those submissions that the committee got was in relation to the illegal gathering that occurred through COVID, and I think that goes to the issue around governance and around what was happening in this state at the time. With thanks to the witnesses, the submissions and also reporting in the media, that issue was exposed. Out of that issue, the misleading evidence that was provided to this committee cannot go unnoticed and needs to be addressed. Misleading the Parliament once you can forgive, but misleading the Parliament twice is gross misconduct, and disrespect of this institution is the reason that that has occurred. That is why there is the referral to the Ombudsman to inquire into this issue and the issues surrounding what was going on and what the government knew – and who from the government was represented at that illegal gathering also needs to be absolutely exposed. This inquiry exposed a lot of those flaws. (Time expired)

Motion agreed to.