Daniel Andrews must today stop the PR spin and take responsibility for the at least 33 deaths his Triple-Zero crisis has tragically resulted in.
Speaking on Monday, Daniel Andrews said that “the extent of how overwhelmed the system was ah was not foreseeable.”
This is just a lie.
Ambulance Employees Australia Victorian Secretary Brett Adie has said “staffing levels at ESTA were not even keeping up with pre-Covid demand, so what hope did Victorians have that resourcing was adequate to cover Covid?”
The Inspector-General for Emergency Management (IGEM) Tony Pearce has also stated in relation to modelling of Triple-Zero demand during the pandemic “the number they came up with were very close to the numbers that actually occurred during the peak.”
Further, Mr Pearce stated “history showed what was going to happen, unfortunately the funding did then not compensate for what we knew was coming.”
The Andrews Labor Government was warned of funding issues with Triple-Zero in 2015. Instead of listening and acting – Daniel Andrews sacked the person pushing for change and replaced them with Labor mates.
Shadow Minister for Emergency Services, Brad Battin, said Victorians deserve a Triple-Zero service that works and that they can have confidence in.
“Victoria needs a fresh start and a new government with real solutions to fix the health crisis.”
“Every line of spin this government comes up with keeps falling flat. Victorians have had enough and deserve so much better.”
“The choice this November is clear. Real solutions to fix the health crisis or a train line from Cheltenham to Box Hill in 13 years’ time.”
Triple-Zero board rebukes Minister on backup dispatch system
The board of Triple-Zero has directly rebuked the Andrews Labor Government over the suitability of a critical backup dispatch system.
In April, Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes defended the months-long wait on developing a proper backup to the troubled Triple Zero computer system, saying the government already has “a backup system which transfers to what is currently utilised as the training system”.
However, ESTA executives have admitted they had little faith in this band-aid solution.
Freedom of Information documents obtained by the Liberals and Nationals confirm that at a board meeting in April 2021, high-level members of ESTA agreed that use of the CAD training software was only “suitable for a planned exercise, but not for an unplanned one”.
This was because “the training environment had to be made ready” before it could be used.
In multiple meetings from June and July of that year, the board described the training software as a “successful method for completing planned outages”, but crucially this did not extend to unplanned outages.
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The inability of the training package to work as a safe backup to the main CAD system was exposed last May, when it was reported that Triple-Zero operators were forced to use pen and paper.
“Victorians cannot afford another four years of mismanagement under Daniel Andrews. Only a Liberals and Nationals Government will restore community confidence in Triple-Zero” Mr Battin added.
The report on triple-Zero service says 33 people died waiting too long for someone to pick up and send an ambulance (although not all deaths were caused by the delay).
But according to the Herald Sun, the Andrews’ government is “so woke that his ambulance service is spending $760,000 to hire more “diversity” officers instead of more people to field calls”.
“Come November, although Premier Daniel Andrews is expected to do well, the issue of Triple-0 and 33 deaths will come to haunt his government. The spin doctors must be in overdrive already to find him a way out this”, Baldev Singh, claiming to be a swinging voter told Bharat Times.
The Liberals have been announcing big facilities in safe Labor seats hoping big swings against the government across the state. Recently Matthew Guy announced a Children’s Hospital in Werribee which had followed an earlier announcement of a stadium for a soccer club in Werribee.
If the Indian community is any indication, the murmurs around it suggest some movement away from the government, but it may not be sizeable enough for the Opposition to snatch the reins from Daniel Andrews.
We may see a shadow of the earlier federal election result in May this year touting the independents or minor parties including the Greens making gains.
But things can move pretty quickly in politics where a day is a long time. We have more than two months.
Time will tell.
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