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Labor Hypocritcal On Ambulance Victoria Communications Move To Ballarat Nationals Member for Morwell Russell Northe will raise in Parliament this week pending concerns of the closure of Ambulance Victorias Morwell Communications Centre Operations this weekend. By Russell Northe - 10th September 2010 - Back to News The closure on 4 September will occur due to the transfer of regional ambulance communication services to the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA) located in Ballarat.
Mr Northe said the centralised call taking and dispatch system has been touted by the Government as a vast improvement on the current system; however there is an air of uncertainty regarding the future of Morwell employees.
There have been concerns also raised over the costs associated with a centralised communications system and the loss of local knowledge once the transfer of services is complete.
"However it has been long proposed that Ambulance Victoria Morwell Communications Centre operations were to transfer to ESTA, even as far back as 1999," said Mr Northe.
Mr Northe said in 1999, the then Labor Opposition Member for Morwell, Keith Hamilton spoke about the impact this closure would have on the Latrobe Valley region and jobs, saying this move would be ‘devastating’ to the region.
"Along with Mr Hamilton, the current Minister for Police and Emergency services Bob Cameron also spoke about impacts to his community, and claimed the move was proposed due to ‘political reasons’.
"However, now that Labor is currently in Government, this move has been pitched as a positive change; and past concerns have been ignored."
Mr Northe said that the current Labor Government now had a responsibility to those Morwell employees who face an uncertain future by providing support and an outcome that is satisfactory to their needs.
"It would be hypocritical for the Brumby Government to let this move simply pass through, even though they had originally opposed this in 1999. They have an obligation to all employees impacted by the transfer of communications operations to Ballarat to assist them in securing employment within Ambulance Victoria and that applies to Morwell employees.
"The Brumby Government has long known that the closure of the Morwell communications centre was imminent but it appears they have done very little to secure the futures of some long serving members of the ambulance service in Victoria and this is not acceptable."
Media: Russell Northe 0408 22 55 23 / Julia Auciello 5133 9088
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: news@gippsland.com
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