Mr WOOD - 2005-08-24
In June this year, out of desperation, the ambos went to the press, and I refer to this article in the Palmerston Sun on 22 June 2005. They told of working 14-hour shifts without a moment to even recover from jobs. They spoke of having to carry multiple patients because there were not enough ambulances. They spoke of a near drowning in the rural area which, fortunately, was attended by the Fire Brigade because they were the closest emergency services.
When will the government make a decision on the future of our ambulance service? Is it to continue as it is, or is the government going to take it over? Does the government accept that our ambos are over-worked and there need to be more ambulances and more staff to relieve the problems? Will the government say what were the recommendations from the two reports, that were supposed to be confidential, on the ambulance service?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I would need a ministerial statement to answer all the aspects you brought up in your question. However, let me do the best I can without taking up too much of the remaining Question Time.
If I could sketch out the processes that we have been through and that we are currently in with St John,. tThat might help the member for Nelson with the answer to his question.
Earlier in the year, as you quite rightly pointed out, there were some assessments of the financial affairs of St John Ambulance. Those studies did find areas of concern about their financial management practices. They also indicated that there was a need for further funding to underwrite their activities.
On receipt of those reports, I had my agency sit down with Michael Mooney and David Baker from St John management. Basically, they went into a huddle to see what we could do to set the scene for a negotiation of the next term of contract for services with us.
As a result of those discussions, we immediately put $2m into the kitty for St John, set against the proven shortfall in their revenue compared to costs for the operating period up to the end of 2004-05. We topped up their 2004-05 funding by $1m as the second part of that. We also undertook to put $1m on to their core funding under the contract going into 2005-06. That was an immediate response that we gave to the organisation to allow us then to move on to a commercial negotiation for the next term of the potential contract with the organisation. It was felt that there were pressures on the organisation that needed to be sorted out quickly to provide the conditions for us to go forward.
Currently, there are two commercial negotiations going on regarding the ambulance service. The first is an EBA which does not involve government. It involves St John management and their organisation with their work force. That EBA will pick up issues such as the relative pay of ambos, their working conditions, the shifts – which will all be very fairly put into an EBA. Of course, as a Labor government, we wish that work force all the best in getting a good outcome of an EBA. It is great that they have one, unlike the federal government that would like to take that process away from them.
The second commercial negotiation is around the renewal of the contract with St John Ambulance. That will encompass issues such as what resources and, therefore, what funding would be required to continue an adequate and safe service across the Northern Territory. For example, how many ambulances do you need? How many ambos do you need? What sort of fixed facilities do you need? What is happening with costs? All of that goes into that negotiation. That is on foot at the moment. Even yesterday, David Baker was publicly saying: ‘Yes, those negotiations are proceeding in a constructive way’. We will see what comes out of that.
However, I am certainly not going to conjecture on either of those processes at this stage that they have reached,; they are very sensitive. I am not going to signal any of the positions we are taking in terms of the contract, and I am sure I am not going to conjecture about an EBA negotiation that affects only the management and the work force of St John Ambulance.
When will the government make a decision on the future of our ambulance service? Is it to continue as it is, or is the government going to take it over? Does the government accept that our ambos are over-worked and there need to be more ambulances and more staff to relieve the problems? Will the government say what were the recommendations from the two reports, that were supposed to be confidential, on the ambulance service?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I would need a ministerial statement to answer all the aspects you brought up in your question. However, let me do the best I can without taking up too much of the remaining Question Time.
If I could sketch out the processes that we have been through and that we are currently in with St John,. tThat might help the member for Nelson with the answer to his question.
Earlier in the year, as you quite rightly pointed out, there were some assessments of the financial affairs of St John Ambulance. Those studies did find areas of concern about their financial management practices. They also indicated that there was a need for further funding to underwrite their activities.
On receipt of those reports, I had my agency sit down with Michael Mooney and David Baker from St John management. Basically, they went into a huddle to see what we could do to set the scene for a negotiation of the next term of contract for services with us.
As a result of those discussions, we immediately put $2m into the kitty for St John, set against the proven shortfall in their revenue compared to costs for the operating period up to the end of 2004-05. We topped up their 2004-05 funding by $1m as the second part of that. We also undertook to put $1m on to their core funding under the contract going into 2005-06. That was an immediate response that we gave to the organisation to allow us then to move on to a commercial negotiation for the next term of the potential contract with the organisation. It was felt that there were pressures on the organisation that needed to be sorted out quickly to provide the conditions for us to go forward.
Currently, there are two commercial negotiations going on regarding the ambulance service. The first is an EBA which does not involve government. It involves St John management and their organisation with their work force. That EBA will pick up issues such as the relative pay of ambos, their working conditions, the shifts – which will all be very fairly put into an EBA. Of course, as a Labor government, we wish that work force all the best in getting a good outcome of an EBA. It is great that they have one, unlike the federal government that would like to take that process away from them.
The second commercial negotiation is around the renewal of the contract with St John Ambulance. That will encompass issues such as what resources and, therefore, what funding would be required to continue an adequate and safe service across the Northern Territory. For example, how many ambulances do you need? How many ambos do you need? What sort of fixed facilities do you need? What is happening with costs? All of that goes into that negotiation. That is on foot at the moment. Even yesterday, David Baker was publicly saying: ‘Yes, those negotiations are proceeding in a constructive way’. We will see what comes out of that.
However, I am certainly not going to conjecture on either of those processes at this stage that they have reached,; they are very sensitive. I am not going to signal any of the positions we are taking in terms of the contract, and I am sure I am not going to conjecture about an EBA negotiation that affects only the management and the work force of St John Ambulance.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016