Honourable Speaker, I rise this evening to speak about wage negotiations for Tasmanian paramedics. Right now, the Liberal government are disrespecting ambulance paramedics with a wage offer that is unfair and doesn’t reflect the value and importance of the work paramedics do everyday and every night. Paramedics are there for Tasmanians when accidents happen and they are injured, as well as in the middle of health emergencies. These are scary times when people need immediate, expert care, often followed by transport to hospital for ongoing medical care and treatment of their injuries and symptoms. In these situations, paramedics provide vital, critical care. What they do is important and, quite literally, life‑saving.
Paramedics deserve respect, and part of that respect means offering fair wages and conditions. Right now, that’s not happening. The government are failing to make a fair offer to paramedics and their failure demonstrates just how little they value the essential work paramedics do. More than that, the government are failing to acknowledge the difficult conditions ambulance paramedics often work under. HACSU Tasmania report that paramedics often work extended shifts where they’re unable to leave due to jobs going overtime or night shift staff not being available to release them from their duties.
Overtime is the norm for paramedics and, on top of long shifts, they also consistently miss meal breaks. It’s no wonder that paramedics report being tired and burnt out. Paramedics are also experiencing moral injury because of their work, when they can’t do the job they’re employed to do, when they can’t get to patients in time, when they find patients sicker because they couldn’t get there in time, they feel it and they are injured by it.
This is having very real impacts on paramedics who report being tired and unable to enjoy their life outside of work. We know from the government’s own survey that paramedic morale is sitting down amongst the lowest it’s ever been, and this is only being made worse by government making wage and condition offers that do not recognise the situation or demonstrate any respect.
It is no wonder paramedics are taking industrial action; their situation is untenable and the wages and conditions they’re being offered aren’t good enough. For that reason, paramedics are taking all 000 patients to hospital.
They’re banning contract work at public events and enforcing a ban on overtime. They want wages that reflect the value of their work and they want improved conditions, including the end of single-paramedic responses. You heard that right; that’s lone paramedics being rostered on and going out to jobs as both driver and paramedic. They’re expected to treat patients and monitor them and drive the ambulance, which is impossible and places patients and paramedics in unsafe situations.
The Greens have long called for the end of single-officer shifts. They aren’t safe and the government must stop using them and ensure all ambulance shifts are staffed by two paramedics. Instead, the Premier came out last week calling paramedics industrial action ‘irresponsible’ and ‘unnecessary.’ He went so far as to claim it puts patient’s safety at risk and was very concerning and very disappointing. Well, Premier, what about the risk of single-officer responses? What about the risk of staff missing meal breaks? What about the risk of staff working 14‑hour shifts and what about the risks of staff working in a culture of low morale?
These conditions are putting patients and paramedics at risk. Paramedic industrial action is being taken to fix these issues and reduce the risks to patient safety and instead of brushing paramedic concerns aside and being obtuse when it comes to understanding risks to patients, the Liberal government need to be honest about what’s really putting patients at risk, and that’s their own mismanagement of ambulance services and their disrespect for paramedics. The government need to start listening to paramedics and paying attention to their industrial action and responding to their requests for better wages and conditions. Paramedics deserve a respectful response from the government and a reasonable wage and conditions offer, and Tasmanians deserve it too.
We all deserve an ambulance service that gets to people in time, provides critical care and transfers people to hospital in a timely manner, an important part of making that happen is better wages and conditions for paramedics. The government should just get on with a better offer as soon as possible.
