Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian community is a very rich and diverse society encompassing many cultures and religions. At times, medical emergencies occur and paramedics are required to respond to a range of health care needs in our diverse community. At present, there are 13,000 paramedics in Australia. They play a key role not only in the provision of vital health care services but also in delivering emergency care in what are often very dangerous and highly complex situations. Most of these high-risk interventions occur totally unsupervised. Therefore, the regulations that underpin matters associated with this profession are of particular concern to paramedics. Despite the risks associated with paramedic practice, there is currently a total absence of a national regulatory framework for paramedics in this country.

For a number of years now there has been a significant push for the registration of paramedics under a national registration accreditation scheme. The primary objective of registration is to ensure greater public safety through the recognition of a paramedic's fitness to practise, regardless of the workplace setting they operate in or their association with either public or private health care providers. Currently, there is no national consistency when it comes to what constitutes a paramedic. I think the community would be pretty concerned about that. Currently there is a myriad of state regulations creating various and different conditions. These apply particularly to education and training and to the safeguards going to patient care. There is no consistency.

The national registration of paramedics would enhance the profession's standards and ensure consistency while delivering on the community's general expectation of what it is that a paramedic does. It would mean that regardless of where you are in this country, you will know that a paramedic is trained to, and operates at, a consistent professional standard. The public safety benefits that would accrue through national registration would be national consistency in regulation of a paramedic's fitness to practise, national consistency in qualifications and a compulsory and independent accreditation of training and education. The overall purpose of national registration is about public safety, minimising risk and having the best safeguards available for our community.

Today I acknowledge the initiative of the unions who support paramedic registration, namely the Health Services Union, the Ambulance Employees Association, United Voice, the Health and Community Services Union and the Transport Workers Union.