Paramedic stabbing exposes legal loophole

0:00The man accused of stabbing a paramedic in a horrific daylight attack as fronted court charged with attempted murder. It's been revealed the knife's blade only narrowly missed the main artery in the veteran paramedic's neck. Jordy Wright has the details. Laura, this morning the court heard it's Muhammad Ali's first time in custody and he didn't apply for bail. Police charged the 32-year-old with attempted murder, accused of slashing and stabbing a mica paramedic in the face and neck yesterday. His victim had arrived at the reservoir shopping strip to meet with another paramedic for coffee while they were both on break. But as he was getting things out of his car, he was attacked from behind. The vile and brazen ambush has sparked outrage, reigniting debate over laws designed to protect emergency workers. We've had two cases, we've had paramedics assaulted while they weren't actually attending

1:03to a patient. If they are on shift, they are on duty and therefore those laws should apply. Currently custodial sentences only apply when workers are officially on duty, not on their breaks, exposing a legal loophole, the state government, now promises to close. We need to change the laws and make sure this never occurs again. It should apply to that victim, that senior ambulance officer yesterday who was stabbed, just because they don't own a coffee break, doesn't mean that legislation shouldn't apply. Laura, the mica paramedic is incredibly lucky, his injuries weren't fatal, I've been told the knife that was plunged into his neck, narrowly missed his main artery and spine despite this. He does remain in good spirits, but the union says many in the workforce feel if it could happen to him, it could happen to any of them.