Wednesday, 29 July 2026

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:32): (1388) My question is for the Minister for Ambulance Services. Minister, Norma is 92 years old. On 28 June she had a fall at home, causing a head laceration with steady bleeding. Her family called 000 and was advised no ambulance was available and to wait for a call back. An hour later they called again and were told no ambulance was available and they would have to transport Norma to hospital themselves for a CT scan. Lorraine is 82, and on 14 June she suffered a fall. Suspecting that she may have a hip or pelvis fracture, her family called for an ambulance. Lorraine remained lying on the cold, wet ground for approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes until an ambulance finally arrived. Why are elderly Victorians in regional Victoria like Norma and Lorraine not getting the care they need when they are at their most vulnerable?

 Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Health, Minister for Water) (12:33): Thanks, Ms Crozier, for that question. We have had this conversation before in the chamber. I am not able to go into the details of the experiences that Norma and Lorraine had for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I do not have the information about what occurred in relation to the matters that you have just canvassed. In addition to that, Ms Crozier, there are issues that need to be discussed and managed very carefully around patient safety and confidentiality, and you have just gone to detail around that that I do not have consent from Norma or Lorraine or their families to talk about. What I would say to you, though, Ms Crozier – and I have said this before – is with details like this please talk with my office and we can have conversations about Norma and Lorraine’s circumstances.

Bev McArthur: It is just a general trend.

Harriet SHING: I will take that up, Mrs McArthur. Ms Crozier and I have actually been able to have discussions as recently as last night, yesterday and today about specific matters which have been able to be addressed and resolved, which is exactly why these conversations are so important – because in a facilitative way I am able to help when I have got those details and we can we can provide further information.

Georgie Crozier: On a point of order, President, I know the minister is spinning and wasting time in her argument, but this is an example of what is happening within our ambulance system. I used these two examples to point out to the chamber and to the rest of Victorians who are watching us today that the system is failing. I would ask you to ask the minister to come back and answer the question: why the system is failing, as these two examples demonstrate. It is not breaching any privacy and the garbled rubbish that the minister is going on about.

The PRESIDENT: You are debating the point of order. I believe the minister was responding to your preamble, but I believe she will get to the substantive answer now.

Harriet SHING: Again, Ms Crozier, the matters that you have raised about Norma and Lorraine are not garbled rubbish. It is a real shame that we are not able to have a mature conversation in this place about the issues relating to ambulance performance, response and resourcing. We have seen a range of reports that have led to significant investment in ambulance services – some $2 billion – and we have increased the ambulance workforce by 53.9 per cent. Most recently we have additional recruits that are hitting the ground on 17 August. Our response times are actually comparably faster than other jurisdictions, including New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and others. There is always more work to do, and as I have said very clearly, there is no finish line when it comes to making sure that people have what they need. We have $146 million in the budget to assist with support for faster emergency care across the state and around $50 million to help paramedics to get back on the road sooner after patients have been moved through a secondary triage process. That triage process is really important because what it helps us to do is ensure that people who call for assistance are getting assistance in a form which best meets their needs. That might mean the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department, it might mean lights and sirens or it might mean alternate processes for treatment and for care. We continue to invest record funding into our services because we know that is what Victorians deserve.

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:37): They certainly deserve more than that garbled response. Minister, the ambulance union recently reported that ambulance crews were waiting up to 2.5 hours at Bendigo Hospital and crews from Beaufort, Majorca, Moyston, Teesdale, Hepburn and patient transport were all ramped, leaving no crews available between Ballarat and Horsham. That is a quote in a social media post that they did last week. Minister, I will ask again, because you did not answer the question. I gave the examples of two elderly women and their families who were dealing with the issue around the ambulance system failing. It is about the performance of our ambulance services not meeting the needs of regional Victorians. I will ask again: when regional Victorians need help in a medical emergency, why is the system failing them so badly, with ambulances ramped and elderly people lying on the ground for hours waiting for an emergency response?

 Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Health, Minister for Water) (12:38): Again, Ms Crozier, following up on my earlier answer, you asked about Victorians getting the help that they need, and one of the things we have done, with the secondary triage process and investing $50.7 million into that, is to make sure that we can actually divert people who do not need code 1 lights and sirens into alternative pathways for care. This is a really important way to make sure that people, including your constituents, my constituents and our constituents, can get care pathways that meet their needs. This means that it sits on top of the work that we are doing for ambulance allocation, an operational matter for Ambulance Victoria. We also operate flexible rostering arrangements, overtime and other operational changes to manage shift vacancies. We also make operational decisions in real time to distribute resources, including the digital coordination centre. You are actually going to sack and scrap all of these things under a Liberal–One Nation coalition government. All of those things will disappear and people will find it so much more difficult to access a paramedic and care when they need it.

David Davis: On a point of order, President, the minister knows she is not to attack the opposition in questions.

A member interjected.

David Davis: It is an attack, and you know that is true.

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:40): I move:

That the minister’s answers be taken into consideration on the next day of meeting.

Motion agreed to.

The PRESIDENT: To address Mr Davis’s point of order, there have been a number of rulings about ministers not attacking the opposition during question time, and I would expect those to be adhered to. I would also say that interjections are unruly and maybe sometimes ministers are responding to interjections. I would ask them not to do that.