Tuesday, 30 August 2022

Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority

Ms CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:05): My question is to the Minister for Emergency Services. Minister, the serious situation at the 000 call service overseen by ESTA has sadly seen the deaths of too many Victorians. On 6 April this year this chamber ordered the release of dozens of consultancy reports commissioned by ESTA. Why are you hiding these documents ordered by the Parliament, given it is now four months since the chamber directed you to provide them?

Ms SYMES (Northern Victoria—Leader of the Government, Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:05): I thank Ms Crozier for her question and the opportunity to again talk about ESTA and the amazing work that they do. You keep referring to the ‘serious situation’. I think I have been very frank in this chamber about the issues that we experienced at the height of some of the surges of the pandemic, but I have also been very clear in the work that we have been doing to ensure that ESTA is supported to provide a service to Victorians of the very highest quality. To continue to say that it is a serious situation there when it is vastly improved and doing a fantastic job, it is almost as though you are disappointed that they are doing well. I will continue to support that workforce because they are doing a fantastic job. More and more call takers are putting their hand up to work at ESTA each and every week. That is a fact, and I will continue to bring that information to the chamber even though it does not really suit the narrative of the people sitting opposite me.

In relation to the documents motion, Ms Crozier, I am advised that it is very complicated. There are a range of extensive documents. I have given updates to the chamber in relation to how it is progressing, similar to the answer that Minister Stitt gave. I do not want people distracted from answering the phones, so ensuring that we get the documents to you is a process that people are undertaking. But when it comes to consultancies, the detail that I have is that 2 per cent of ESTA’s budget has been spent on consultancies, so this is not a large issue. This is not something that we are hiding. We are focused on supporting this organisation to be the very best that it can be to support our hardworking emergency services staff to get to Victorians in need. That is my focus. That is the focus of the organisation. When it comes to the documents that you have sought, of course they will go through the processes, and I will indeed table them when they become available. They are not in my possession; they are going through the normal process.

Ms CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:08): Clearly the minister is really struggling here. She might like to verbal me in the answer to my question. These consultancies were commissioned prior to COVID. You might deflect, you might blame and you might have an excuse, but there were millions of dollars spent on these consultancies and you will not provide them. Minister, isn’t it a fact that you are stalling in releasing these documents, that you have got a pathetic excuse to bring into this chamber and that you will not provide them to the Parliament of Victoria, because it is a cover-up of your ongoing failures and because of the fact that too many Victorians have died because you have failed to act since 2016 when these consultancies started to be commissioned, way before COVID. I ask again: will you stop the cover-up and release those documents to the Parliament as requested and ordered by this chamber?

The PRESIDENT: I believe the minister already answered your question, but I call the minister.

Ms SYMES (Northern Victoria—Leader of the Government, Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:09): President, I agree with you. I have already answered that question.