Wednesday, 17 June 2026

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (19:15): (2603) I rise to raise a matter with the Minister for Emergency Services, and I am loath to do this, but I feel I have no other avenue. The action I seek is for the minister to finally approve a site visit to the Triple Zero Victoria call-taking centre at Burwood. It was eight weeks ago when I first asked the minister to approve a site visit to Triple Zero Victoria. Since then my office has made repeated phone calls, sent multiple emails and sought every reasonable avenue to facilitate what should be an entirely routine request. The response: not a visit, not a briefing on site, not an opportunity to observe operations firsthand. Instead, after weeks of delay, we were offered a Teams meeting. What exactly is the government trying to hide? This is not a political stunt. It is not an attempt to interfere with operations. It is a straightforward fact-finding exercise. Other MPs have requested visits, so I do not see why I should be excluded. Understanding how the system works, where the pressure exists and what challenges staff face should be encouraged, not obstructed, yet that is all I have got from the minister’s office, and I think it is a disgrace.

Labor’s press release of 29 April said only 20 per cent of Triple Zero ambulance calls are currently referred to a secondary triage service. We also know that the Allan government has announced a further $28 million investment, intended to increase the use of secondary triage. What the government has not been willing to clearly explain is what success looks like. If 20 per cent of calls are currently diverted, what proportion is the government aiming for? How will that change demand for ambulances? How will outcomes be actually measured? That is the critical point here. These are entirely legitimate questions. We also know from the Legislative Council’s inquiry into Ambulance Victoria, which I sat on, that some emergency calls have been misallocated or incorrectly categorised with serious consequences. The Victorian Ambulance Union said only 20 per cent, or one in five, matched the allocation when paramedics arrived on the scene. Understanding how call-taking decisions are made, how staff are trained and what safeguards exist should not be controversial.

Equally concerning are workforce questions. Data from the latest federal government Productivity Commission report shows Victoria operates its emergency call-taking service with significantly fewer staff than comparable services in New South Wales and Queensland. That raises important questions about workload, staffing levels, retention and system resilience. A Teams meeting cannot answer those questions. We are not in COVID now. It cannot provide the same insight as seeing operations firsthand, speaking with staff and understanding the realities of a service relied upon by millions of Victorians.

Triple Zero Victoria staff perform an extraordinary role under immense pressure. They deserve recognition, support and scrutiny that leads to improvement. They also deserve to understand that the opposition is interested in what they are doing. So I ask the minister: why has a simple site visit been blocked for eight weeks? Why the secrecy? Why the resistance? What is it that the government does not want us to see? I therefore ask the Minister for Emergency Services to approve without further delay a visit to the Triple Zero Victoria call centre in Burwood.