Mr BAIRD (1:49 PM) —I rise to make the House aware of a disturbing incident concerning the New South Wales emergency services and the way they treat those who report serious incidents. Mr Gareth Redshaw, a constituent of mine from Caringbah, was a passenger on the ill-fated train that derailed in Waterfall on the morning of Friday, 31 January. Mr Redshaw survived the carnage, from which he managed to free himself and call 000 emergency from his mobile phone. The record shows that he was put through to the ambulance services. The result was as follows.

The first phone call simply dropped out when he was midway through the reporting. When he got through the second time, he was accused of making a hoax call. They said, `We know who you are. You're the guy who rings from Queanbeyan.' They did not believe him. Call No. 3 was to his parents. He asked them to make a call to the emergency services to advise them that this major drama had occurred. Call No. 4 also went through, and he again was accused of making a hoax call. The first call, which had been put through to the ambulance services, went through to Wollongong. The fourth call went through to the Sydney bureau of the ambulance services. Discussions have been held since that time to try to sort out what the problem was and why they simply accused Mr Redshaw of making a hoax call. (Time expired)