Health Practitioners in in Paramedics Pay not an Emergency; a Review of James Campbell Criticism of The 30% Pay Rise of Victorian Paramedics

James Campbell’s column, ‘Paramedics Pay not an emergency’ published in the Sunday Herald Sun on July 14, 2013 argues what the title suggests, that Victorian Paramedics don’t deserve the 30% pay rise they are campaigning for. Campbell adopts a very sarcastic tone to present the arguments that Paramedics earn enough considering the amount of leave and sick days they take. He appeals to his audience of Victorian Taxpayers by including the audience in his views, quoting statistics and figures that effectively hit the hip-pocket nerve, and ridiculing the pay rise request.

Campbell begins his column by getting all members of his audience on-side, acknowledging that “if your loved one has dropped dead in the street and one of Ambulance Victoria’s finest has got your heart going again” then perhaps you will support the claim for a pay rise. Once acknowledging this group, Campbell continues his column by including his audience in his disgust at the request of a “whopping” 48% pay increase. He argues that “most of us” do not have the 10 weeks leave granted to Paramedics and that “most of us” work Monday to Friday, not the four-on, four-off roster the Paramedics are entitled to. Through his inclusive comparison of Paramedics’ working conditions, the audience is positioned to consider their own working conditions as inadequate in comparison and lose sympathy for the Paramedic’s pay battle and agree that their pay request is not warranted.

The column also relies heavily on the use of figures to appeal to the audience’s sense of justice and to their hip-pocket nerve. Campbell’s first appeal to the hip pocket nerve comes through reminding the audience that the Victorian government is “trying to pay its way through the straitened economy”. This leads taxpayers to question the effect of granting such a large pay rise. The repetition of the sum of “Ninety-three thousand dollars!?!” through Campbell’s piece keeps this large sum in the reader’s mind as the figure that “the most common category of paramedic earns”. This again, has the audience comparing their own financial situations. Once this is firmly established in the reader’s mind Campbell presents damning statistics about Ambulance Victoria’s lack of productivity, summing up his statistics with the generalisation that “it would seem the average ambo is only working 11 days a month”. These statistics combine to position the audience against Ambulance Victoria, viewing them as unproductive and unworthy of the pay increase requested.

To sway his audience further, Campbell employs sarcasm to accentuate the “sweet” deal Paramedics are getting. He suspiciously points to the amount of “unplanned leave” take and how they “often seem to strike on weekends” to portray Ambos as slack and undeserving. Campbell finishes his column, inviting the audience to adopt his own cynical view towards the Ambulance Service. “Ask yourself if this sounds like a group of people who should be asking taxpayers for a 30 per cent pay rise with a straight face?” Coupled with Campbell’s sarcasm throughout the column and the ironic message pictured on the back of a Frankston ambulance, this final question positions the reader to see the campaign for a pay increase as ridiculous and to agree with the writer that it should not be granted.

The use of sarcasm, inclusive language and figures designed to hit the hip-pocket nerve are all part of James Campbell’s approach in his column, ‘Paramedics’ Pay not an emergency’. The matter-of-fact delivery of Campbell’s contention that Paramedics should not be given a pay rise, combine well with his choice of language techniques and position the audience of tax-payers against the industrial action.