Jock O’Connor said although the law needed to be tighter he was not in favour of mandatory sentencing and maintained the judiciary needed to have discretion when sentencing.

“In reality there wouldn’t be one paramedic who has not been verbally or physically assaulted while on the job,” he said. “We use our discretion all the time on whether we press charges. It’s very unlikely I’d press charges on a drunken patient who lashes out.” He said paramedics were trained to deal with unpredictable situations. He said it had been heartening to know the community had been thinking about the safety of paramedics.

The planned changes have come after three paramedics were assaulted in Melbourne last week and a County Court decision to quash the jail time for two women who badly injured a veteran paramedic in March 2016. 

The state government will introduce the reforms to Parliament which would mean attacks resulting in injuries against emergency workers, including police, paramedics and firefighters will now be treated as category one offences and would require courts to impose a custodial sentence. The offences would be treated in the same category as murder and rape.