Tuesday, 30 April 2024

 Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (18:52): (842) My adjournment is for the Minister for Ambulance Services, and I am seeking the action of the minister to inform my constituents when the new ambulance station in Craigieburn will be fully staffed and operational.

We have all heard of the pub with no beer, but in the north we have literally got an ambulance station with no staff – we have got a new multimillion-dollar ambulance station sitting empty. Labor promised this station in Craigieburn would be staffed 24 hours a day and have enough bays to fit four ambulances, but now it will only have three vehicles, two of which are being redeployed from a nearby branch. Locals and staff have reported to me that the new ambulance station has been broken into several times while it has remained empty. Labor promised this ambulance station in 2016. The then health minister Jill Hennessy said in July 2018 the Craigieburn ambulance station would be completed by June the next year, so in 2019, but they did not even settle on a location until September of 2022. It was then promised it would be completed by mid-2023, but it was only opened officially in March this year.

When the Liberals pointed out this delay back in 2018, the local member for then Yuroke, now Kalkallo, said that the Liberals could not be trusted because they waged war on our ambos. How ironic given that the signage that is on ambulances in Craigieburn and across the state says that in fact it is Labor that is waging war on our ambos – paramedics like Glenn Wilson, who says he is ‘fed up with promises not being met’ and that no new ambulances are ‘being made available to respond to the ever-expanding Craigieburn community’, which happens across all of our growth areas in our state with all types of services. Labor pinches the stamp duty revenue from these areas and spends it everywhere but our growing suburbs.

Glenn goes on to say that:

Ambulances from other areas of Melbourne such as Sunbury and Epping are often dispatched to emergency cases in Craigieburn and Mickleham, causing significant delays for locals to receive help when they need it most.

He says:

We are concerned that Ambulance Victoria is simply redeploying existing ambulances and paramedics to the Yuroke branch to make it appear to the community that the ‘multi-million-dollar branch’ is being staffed, when it is in fact currently not providing further benefit to the community …

This sorry saga is symbolic of the contempt with which Labor holds communities in the outer north – promise after promise not being met, and no-one will care because it is a safe seat. Well, I tell you what, locals are absolutely furious about this, whether it be delays on the Craigieburn Road duplication, illegal dumping of rubbish or 40 per cent vacancies at Craigieburn police station. So I seek the action of the minister to provide an update on when the new Yuroke ambulance station will be fully operational.