Page 4044 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 30 October 2013
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• Firefighter First Responders significantly reduce response times to critical and medical emergencies, improving patient outcomes and increasing the chances of patient survival and recovery.
I will skip a couple. Then we go to:
ACT Firefighter First Responders are not sufficiently trained to perform the EMR role.
That is from the UFU, the United Firefighters Union. It continues:
This poses risks to firefighter mental health and to the public that must be addressed.
So, minister, you are on notice. Your union have told you that their members, in their belief, are not sufficiently trained to perform the EMR role and that the public and the firefighters are at risk. That is on your head. Treat that with disdain, minister. Be snide about that. But you have been warned by the union that you put those members and the public at risk.
This is why, Mr Rattenbury—maybe you will change your mind as I speak—this motion should get up today.
Mr Corbell: On a point of order, Madam Speaker, could you remind Mr Smyth that he has to direct his comments through the chair?
MR SMYTH: Devastating! Madam Speaker, I apologise.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Smyth, there is no point in making snide comments. I ask you to comply with the standing orders and direct your comments through the chair.
MR SMYTH: Madam Speaker, Mr Corbell has been snide; he has treated this debate with disdain. The ridicule is noted, and all of the members of fire and emergency, the SES, the RFS and the ACT Ambulance Service have heard his response. These points that I raise today have come from those people.
In regard to the draft terms of reference, let me say this. It was last year’s budget, Madam Speaker, that I referred to. I made that clear in my speech. So again, I would say to Mr Rattenbury, through you, Madam Speaker, that that is why it is important that this motion gets up today. Mr Corbell just avoids the issue.
Yes, Mr Corbell, through you, Madam Speaker, I did get the question on notice response about the post-incidents debrief. The officers that have come to me have said, “Yes, those things occurred, and they are inadequate.” Will you check the adequacy of those things? Perhaps you would like to get on to that. There is the culture within the service of the ACT Ambulance Service. This morning we heard him describe the Ambulance Service as a cottage industry. How disgraceful! What disdain! Perhaps it was just a really poor metaphor, but I would not have thought that the professional
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