Assault on Emergency Workers

Change to Legislation

On Monday, 21 May 2018, the AEAV and The Police Association Victoria (TPAV) had an emergency meeting with Premier Andrews where we demanded change to legislation that allowed two drunk women to walk free after bashing two of our members.

We are pleased to report that Premier Andrews has committed to making the following changes to the Section 10AA of the Victorian Sentencing Act 1991.

1. Attacks resulting in injuries against emergency workers, including police, paramedics, firefighters and health workers delivering or supporting emergency care, like nurses and doctors, will now be treated as category 1 offences and will require Courts to impose a custodial sentence, not a community based order such as a CCO (there will be a prohibition on CCOs for assaults on emergency workers).

2. The special reasons exception which applies to all statutory minimum prison sentences will be substantially narrowed so that impairment due to alcohol or drugs can no longer be used as an excuse, psychosocial immaturity will be removed as a special reason, and the court must give significantly less weight to the life circumstances of the offender.

3. The rights of the Director of Public Prosecutions will be strengthened so the DPP can appeal where the narrowed special reasons exception is found to exist.

The exact details about how this will operate for juveniles will be agreed to between the Government and The Police Association Victoria and the AEAV over coming months. In this reference group we will be able to work through the other issues like assaults and verbal abuse.

This outcome would not have been possible without the strong collective action from the membership and the joint message from Ambulance Victoria and the Union.

As a sign of good faith the Union requests members take the writing off the trucks.

Steve McGhie
General Secretary