Victoria: DIE bureaucrats hired and paid more than ambulance workers, while 21 patients die. By Rachael Blaxendale.

Ambulance Victoria has spent more than $760,000 hiring a swath of “diversity and inclusion” officers on six-figure salaries at a time when Victorians have been dying waiting for ambulances. …

Why? Ideology, class warfare perhaps:

In March, Commissioner Ro Allen handed down the second volume of a 17-month inquiry into a “toxic culture” at Ambulance Victoria, finding that harmful gender stereotypes dictating that elite paramedics at the organisation should be “white, male … confident, stoic and … the family breadwinner” were preventing women from being accepted at senior levels. …

Say no more! Spare no expense, and damn the patients.

In recent weeks, the organisation has advertised six new roles through recruitment firm Jo Fisher Executive, including “Director, Diversity & Inclusion”, with a salary of $169,000+, “Senior Lead, Diversity & Inclusion” for $147,000+, “Program Lead, Equality & Workplace Reform Division” for $122,000+, “Executive Assistant to Executive Director, Equality & Workplace Reform Division” for $79,000+, “Senior Program Manager, Implementation” for $122,000+, and “Program Lead, Multicultural” for $122,000+. …

The hires come as the Herald Sun on Monday revealed former Ambulance Victoria chairman Ken Lay was made aware of concerns about a senior female staff member who resigned following an internal investigation into bullying allegations, but was subsequently hired to manage public relations, and had an overseas trip to a Harvard management course paid for by the organisation while she was under investigation. …

Paramedics? Not so much:

The advertised minimum salaries total $761,000, and compare with an average first-year salary for an Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority ambulance call taker of $71,500, and salaries for Ambulance Victoria paramedics which range from $75,000 to $113,335.

21 Victorians died waiting for an ambulance in past six months. By AAP.

Twenty-one Victorians have died waiting for an ambulance over the past six months, a budget estimates hearing has been told.

Failures in the triple-zero system have been blamed for 18 of the deaths with three attributed to paramedics not getting to patients on time, Ambulance Victoria’s acting chief executive, Libby Murphy, said on Friday.

Wow. Could have hired more ambulance call takers ($71,500 a piece) or more paramedics ($75,000 to $113,335).

Instead they hired six DIE officers (averaging $126,000+ a piece) for ideological reasons. 21 people died.

The modern world is drowning in overpaid and useless administrators and bureaucrats.

E.g. US health:

Q: How come the bureaucrats get paid more than people who do the actual work (as is now common throughout the health, education, and science research industries)? A: Because they are the bosses.

It didn’t used to be this way.

hat-tip Stephen Neil