A ballot of Ambulance Employees Association (AEA) members that concluded on Monday saw extended care paramedic Paul Ekkelboom elected to replace Watkins as the union’s general secretary.

Ekkelboom, who has worked in the SA Ambulance Service for 25 years, polled 801 votes to Watkins’ 342, FIVEaa reported this morning.

Watkins has been the AEA’s general secretary since the union’s last leadership election in September 2021.

Ekkelboom has twice been president of the AEA and sat on the union’s executive branch as late as January this year.

In a post on Facebook on September 21, Ekkelboom said he was running for general secretary to “increase transparency, increase communication and increase political impartiality”.

His campaign platform included “re-establishing the AEA’s political independence”, a “more strategic use of media & public interest”, and a “stronger stance & advocacy on ramping”.

Ekkelboom declined to comment when contacted by phone but indicated he would have more to say later today.

Paul Ekkelboom’s campaign poster. Photo: Facebook

In a statement distributed by the union this morning, Ekkelboom said: “I am honoured to have been elected by my colleagues as AEA General Secretary.”

“I would like to thank former Secretary Leah Watkins for her many years of service and all outgoing AEA elected officials for their contributions to the AEA and its membership,” he said.

“I look forward to working collaboratively with the AEA membership, representatives, union colleagues, and stakeholders to advance the interests of AEA members and the South Australian community.”

The leadership change at one of South Australia’s most politically influential unions comes as ambulance ramping continues at record levels under the Malinauskas Government despite Labor’s 2022 election promise to “fix the ramping crisis”.

The political influence and messaging of the ambulance union have come under scrutiny during Watkins’ time as general secretary.

The AEA ran a sustained and targeted media campaign against the former Marshall Government before the 2022 state election; the union’s updates on ramping and patient deaths marred the final days of the Liberal Party’s campaign, dominated the news and backed Labor’s strong focus on the health system.

A chalked ambulance as part of the ambulance union’s campaign ahead of the March 2022 state election. Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily

The campaign, which cost $400,000, was wound down after the Malinauskas Government came to power with the union no longer regularly disclosing patient incidents despite continued pressure on the hospital system.

Watkins also refused to meet with the Liberal Party after the 2022 state election, saying at the time that trust between the union’s members and the Opposition had been “trashed”. She has since indicated a willingness to meet with new Opposition leader Vincent Tarzia, whose first piece of correspondence as leader was to the union requesting a meeting.

InDaily contacted Watkins for comment.

Speaking in May 2022, Watkins said it was not sustainable for the union to keep up its campaigning against the new government.

“I can understand people’s cynicism in that they saw a certain level of media push and attention from us prior to the election and there has been a stark change – despite the [ramping] situation not having that stark change as well,” Watkins told InDaily at the time.

“We know that ramping is not significantly better overnight, albeit our response is significantly different.

“But the situation was so important back then that the public were aware of how bad things were, and also holding the [Marshall] Government to account … to make them publicly answer for these types of cases that they were minimising [and] deflecting,”

The AEA has become more vocal over the last year as ramping outside metropolitan hospitals continues to plague the health system despite the Malinauskas Government committing $7.1 billion to health.

After ambulances spent a record 5539 hours on the ramp in July, Watkins said this “must be a moment for the Government to stop and reassess all actions they are taking to fix ramping”.

The union also said at the time the situation was “unacceptably dangerous” with “multiple life-threatening conditions left waiting uncovered in the community whilst crews are ramped”.

Earlier this year, the union also disclosed the case of 54-year-old Hectorville man “Eddie” who died on the night of December 27/28 waiting more than 10 hours for an ambulance.

The story dominated the news for days and became material for Liberal Party attack ads against the Malinauskas Government.

In a Facebook post before the union’s ballot closed, Watkins said serving as AEA secretary has been “the biggest honour of my life”.

She also touted achievements such as “more ambulance stations”, “hundreds more staff”, “600 hospital beds to address ramping” and a new enterprise bargaining agreement with back pay.

“It’s been a massive three years with some joyous moments of celebration, but also some hard lessons learned,” she posted on September 10.

“It’s a massive job, and I’ve certainly made mistakes along the way, but each one teaches me something.

“It’s not all good outcomes and wins, but despite the odds I give it my all. Every day I get up pumped to go to work in the service of the AEA.”