St John Ambulance’s funding is set for a major boost in the NT Government’s budget. Photo: St John Ambulance NT.
The Finocchiaro Government in the Northern Territory is supporting St John Ambulance with a $10 million support package in next month’s budget.
The money will help the organisation’s work of supplementing the official ambulance service.
Health Minister Steve Edgington said the $10 million injection was to be made while the government finalised a five-year funding agreement.
Overall, St John Ambulance will receive $68 million in the budget.
“This money is to support and assist St John Ambulance while they recruit more paramedics and we finalise a long-term and permanent deal,” Mr Edgington said.
“We’re expediting negotiations with St John Ambulance — mapping demand both now and into the future so we can lock in the staff and resources Territorians need.”
Mr Edgington said the new deal would boost the ambulance’s resources. He said funding negotiations were advanced and he hoped the deal would be finalised in a few months.
“In our year of growth, certainty and security, the CLP Government will be providing certainty and security to not only St John Ambulance with a five-year contract, but to Territorians that they will have the ambulance service the NT needs into the future,” he said.
“The last Labor government short-changed our ambulance service — leaving St John Ambulance stuck on rolling short-term deals that left St John and Territorians without certainty.
“St John Ambulance has been providing our ambulance service to Territorians for decades and the CLP Government will work to ensure Territorians can continue to trust in our ambulance service.”
Funding for the service in 2023 totalled $36.1 million — a figure the government plans to almost double to $68 million.
