Thursday, 27 August 2026

 Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Special Minister of State) (12:36): I rise to update the house on how the Carroll Labor government is getting more paramedics on the road, backing emergency care for Victorians when and where it is needed. Last week I joined the Premier to welcome 24 new graduate paramedics and four new mobile intensive care ambulance paramedics to the Ambulance Victoria ranks. Their recruitment means that more than 80 graduate, qualified and MICA paramedics have joined the service since July, and in the last year alone Labor has recruited 294 more graduate paramedics. Twenty graduates will be placed across Melbourne, including Moonee Ponds, St Albans, Caulfield, Eltham, Rosebud, Ferntree Gully, Werribee and Hillside, and another four will be placed at branches in regional Victoria, including Geelong, Kilmore and Gisborne. The four MICAs will be based in Wonthaggi, Mildura and Horsham, a real boost to regional Victoria, and Labor will always back our dedicated, highly skilled paramedics. This includes investing more than $2 billion, growing the workforce by more than 50 per cent and delivering 51 new or upgraded ambulance stations.

I want to take the opportunity to thank our newest recruits for the work they will take on every day to serve the Victorian community with courage and compassion. It takes a special person to choose this profession, and I congratulate each of them for reaching this important milestone. The contrast could not be starker. Unlike those opposite, we will always back our paramedics, and the contrast between Labor and the One Nation–Liberal coalition – you could not be clearer than that.