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Essay / Paramedic healthcare professionals do not pay in an emergency; a review of James Campbell's critique of the 30% pay rise for Victoria's paramedics
James Campbell's column, 'Paramedics Pay not an Emergency', published in the Sunday Herald Sun on July 14 2013, supports what the title suggests, that Victorian paramedics do not deserve the 30% pay rise they are campaigning for. Campbell takes a very sarcastic tone to present the arguments that paramedics earn enough given the amount of vacation and sick days they take. He appeals to his audience of Victorian taxpayers by including the public in his opinions, citing statistics and figures that effectively hit the nerves at the hip and ridiculing the demand for a pay rise. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Campbell begins his column by gathering everyone in his audience together, acknowledging that "if your loved one has dropped dead in the street and one of Ambulance Victoria's finest has got your heart started again", then maybe be you will support the request for a salary increase. After acknowledging this group, Campbell continues his column by including his audience in his disgust at the demand for a "huge" 48% salary increase. He argues that "most of us" do not benefit from the 10 weeks of leave given to paramedics and that "most of us" work Monday to Friday, not the four-hour schedule. four to which paramedics are entitled. Through its inclusive comparison of paramedics' working conditions, the public is able to view their own working conditions as inadequate in comparison, lose sympathy for the paramedics' pay battle, and accept that their demand for pay is not justified. The column also relies heavily on the use of numbers to appeal to the audience's sense of justice and pocket courage. Campbell's first appeal to the nerve of the pocket comes from reminding the public that the Victorian government is "trying to navigate its way through a struggling economy". This leads taxpayers to question the effect of such a significant salary increase. The repetition of the sum of “Ninety-three thousand dollars!?!” " Campbell's article keeps this significant sum in the reader's mind as the figure that "the most common category of paramedics" earns. Once again, the public compares their own financial situation. With this firmly in the reader's mind, Campbell presents damning statistics on Ambulance Victoria's lack of productivity, summarizing his statistics with the generalization that "it would appear that the average ambo only works 11 days per day." month ". These statistics combine to position the public against Ambulance Victoria, seeing it as unproductive and undeserving of the requested pay rise. To further influence his audience, Campbell uses sarcasm to emphasize the "soft" deal the paramedics get. He suspiciously points to the number of “unscheduled leaves” and how they “often seem to go on strike on weekends” to portray Ambos as lazy and unworthy. Campbell ends his column by inviting the public to adopt their own cynical view of the ambulance service. “Ask yourself if this sounds like a group of people who should be asking taxpayers for a.