News of a Tasmanian losing their life after a lengthy wait for an ambulance is devastating beyond words.
On behalf of the Greens, I extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends affected by this tragedy. Our thoughts are also with Ambulance Tasmania and Royal Hobart Hospital staff. They are doing everything they can to keep our communities safe and healthy, but too often they’re put in impossibly difficult positions.
Situations like what unfolded on the weekend should never happen. Unfortunately though, they are now the inevitable result of a system that has been starved of the resources and denied the solutions it needs to keep Tasmanians safe in an emergency.
There have been so many warnings. So many reports. So many recommendations. So many tragedies. And yet still so little action from the Rockliff Government. In fact, their current budget sets out real cuts to the ambulance service.*
Too often we have seen the government refusing to acknowledge there is a major problem with ambulance services in Tasmania. The current Health Minister has chosen to launch political attacks rather than addressing the issue. But what we are seeing is not just isolated incidents – the statistics paint a clear and very disturbing picture.
Questioning from the Greens in Budget Estimates revealed that in just the first nine months of the 2025/26 year, 6343 emergency calls waited longer than 30 minutes for an ambulance. On average that’s around one every hour – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And to be clear, those are calls that expert staff have clinically assessed as being emergencies.
We also know things have gotten so much worse over the past few years. In 2018/19, Tasmania’s 90th percentile wait time for ambulance emergencies was 29.2 minutes. Greens questions earlier this year revealed that had risen to an alarming 38.7 minutes. That’s a huge change, especially considering this data is only for incidents that were verified emergencies.
Patients and healthcare staff alike have spent years demanding this government acts on this crisis. The statistics get worse every year. Case after heartbreaking case has been reported in the media. Experts have laid out the solutions, but the Premier and successive Health Ministers have refused to act.
What will it take for the Rockliff Government to finally start doing what is known to be required to make our ambulance service safe and reliable for all who need it?
*Expenditure on ambulance services is budgeted at $190,766,000 in 2026/27 and drops to $190,342,000 in 2027/28. This is despite projections that demand for ambulances will increase.
