Victoria's Premier has apologised for failures in the state's triple-0 system while defending the government's handling of a damning report linking dozens of deaths to the crisis.
An independent investigation released at the weekend found at least 33 people died after delays with the state's ESTA emergency call system between December 2020 and May 2022.
The investigation by Inspector-General for Emergency Management Tony Pearce found that in late 2021, Victorians were waiting well over the five-second target time for their calls to be answered — at times waiting more than 10 minutes.
It concluded the emergency call system was unable to cope with the surge in demand during the pandemic.
The state opposition had criticised the Premier for not fronting the media himself, and instead having Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes appear.
Today the Premier apologised on behalf of the government for the lives lost as a result of the overloaded system.
"We apologise for a system that did not meet your needs, we absolutely apologise and we appreciate just how challenging this will be for you," he said.
Mr Andrews said he was caring for a sick family member over the weekend, adding he had "complete confidence" in Ms Symes.
"It is simply wrong for anyone to assert that these matters have not been delt with urgently, this matter has been dealt with at the highest levels of government appropriately with a comprehensive response," he said.
The weekend's reports were the latest in a long string of damning findings relating to the state's emergency call-taking system. Former police commissioner Graham Ashton found in May the agency had displayed "continued and systematic underperformance".
ESTA is beginning a wide-ranging overhaul which includes being rebranded as Triple Zero Victoria, shifting the agency to be part of the Department of Justice and Community Safety, extra government funding for more staff, and changes to improve call-taking and responses.
The government's health-focused budget allocated $333 million to recruit 400 new staff for the service.
