The witness, an intensive care paramedic with twenty years of experience working in the industry, was a colleague and friend of the deceased Damien Crump who died in December 2016, aged 36.

In evidence she told of a workplace culture that offered little support for those suffering on the job with mental illness or post traumatic stress disorder, which had few policies to proactively create a safe workplace.

"As soon as someone has a psychological injury or illness the mindset [from the organisation] is that 'they are no good for us because they can't do night shift. We just need to get rid of them. It would solve the problem if we just get rid of these people'," she said.

She said she believed Mr Crump was of the belief that if he raised his hand for formal support relating to his psychological issues that it would put his job in jeopardy.

"He understood that speaking up and admitting that you have a psychological illness or injury or being diagnosed with one was still - it may have changed but at that time - it was still considered that you were weak," she said.

"He was watching what I was going through after being diagnosed with PTSD, he saw first hand the struggles to get support ... and he made it very clear that there was no way he would consider doing workers comp because it would put a target on his back."

The witness, who trained as a health and safety representative, said when she raised workplace mental health support issues with management, there was little to no response.

"We got told at one point that mental illness is not a workplace health and safety issue. We got told that long extended night shifts are not a hazard, it is just part of the job that it is a fatigue issue," she said.

"There was a mismatch between our understanding of health work and safety processes, and managers who had never done work health safety training. So it was very difficult."

Other toxic practices within the organisation related to the management of employees.

The witness gave evidence of a management tactic where employees would be "put on the bus" to drive them out of the ambulance service, to either restrict job promotion or phase-them out altogether.

"We found out about this system called "bus" where if managers thought you were being difficult or hard to manage you would be put on the bus, which was the bus to drive you out of the ambulance service.

"There was an attempt by management to be aware that you were on the bus, and to make sure that your life was difficult."

She also spoke of incidences where Mr Crump, who had been promoted to a clinical support officer role, "had to ignore his moral compass in order to do the things he was asked to do [by management]."

Additional evidence about Mr Crump around the time of his death was also provided by the witness, who said she went to a manager with another employee to voice her concerns about what she saw as the psychological distress of Mr Crump.

"I used the words psychological crisis ... I made another attempt to let her know how concerned I was, how I thought that there was something really wrong, and she made the point 'I've known this boy for years, I know how to look after him, I've got it under control'.

"At that point I thought 'OK, obviously you've rung his psychiatrist or something', or 'OK, I trust you, you've got an action plan, it is not my role to ask what it is'.

"I wish I had of."