The State Government introduced new legislation, in relation to assaults.
It is taken that an assault on a person working in a Prescribed occupation (Police, Ambos, I think Nurses, Doctors, and a few others) is more serious than a similar assault on someone not working in the prescribed capacity.
The Government also introduced legislation to make it a more serious offence to assault a young person (I think under 12 years) and to assault older persons (I think over 60 years).
Basically, the government is trying to protect "vulnerable" people within the community (eg old & young) and to protect people who, by working in a particular occupation, tend to get assaulted by their "clients".....
The legislation does not work the other way - eg if a person is assaulted by someone working in a prescribed occupation, they only get the normal level of protection under legislation.....
The legislation is also quite specific that the person must be working in their prescribed occupation at the time of the offence - eg ambo must be on duty at the time of the assault for the assault to be aggravated.
Pip