Page 3908 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 23 October 1990
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is no leave held beyond a year's entitlement as annual leave has been rostered for each officer. There is some outstanding accumulated leave which was rostered in the 1983-87 period, and staff have agreed under the recent ambulance agreement - - -
Mr Berry: What about the question: how many times in the last six months have there been less than four ambulances? What about that question? What was the answer?
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Berry!
MR DUBY: The simple fact is, of course, that four ambulances are supposed to be provided for the ACT. As Mr Berry is well aware, that is the preferred standard for the ACT at any one time. For people to be able to pull statistics out and say, "Yes, we did not have four ambulances for so many hours of each week between the dates of such-and-such and such-and-such", is clearly impossible. Mr Humphries has said, quite categorically, that the amount of work involved in obtaining that information at the click of a finger makes it quite an arduous task, yet it is being provided. Mr Humphries has given the indication that that answer will be provided and it will be provided when - - -
Mr Berry: Would you accept nine days from your bureaucrats? I bet you would not.
MR DUBY: The obvious answer is that that depends on the nature of the task and the nature of the other work that is required to be done in that area. The simple fact is that, as Minister Humphries has said, the Ambulance Service is currently up to full strength with 71 staff. At the same time last year, under Mr Berry, the service was understaffed with only 62. There are people who have recently started, and I believe it should be pointed out that these people have started. Seven additional staff have been put on. They commenced work on 8 October after a long and careful selection process. The Leader of the Opposition implied that the positions had been advertised in October. These people actually started in October.
The ratio of staff within the Ambulance Service is quite good in comparison with that within other services. We have a ratio of qualified to unqualified staff within the service. It currently has 32 qualified staff and 19 staff at various levels working towards full qualifications. The remaining 20 staff include 11 station officers, three clinic or bus transport staff, three training and three administration staff. There have been no instances when ambulances have operated with an unqualified crew, and that is a question that Mr Berry has bandied about as if it has happened. He has been told on numerous occasions - - -
Mr Berry: No, I asked the question.
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