Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Seniors) Share this | Hansard source

This government, of course, called the royal commission into aged care. It had more than a dozen reports sitting on its desk, with hundreds and hundreds of recommendations. In the two years since the Prime Minister called that royal commission, we have seen some devastating evidence at that royal commission. We have seen some terrible things. We've seen wounds with ants crawling on them. We've seen residents with malnutrition. We've seen that one in five Australians in residential aged care are receiving substandard care according to the royal commission's evidence. The evidence can only be described as confronting. Over 10,000 submissions have been received by the royal commission, with expert after expert conveying the bleak picture to the commissioners of a system that is broken and in need of major reform. I want to take the time to thank those witnesses who have bravely come forward, telling harrowing stories about their loved ones and their family members, and those aged-care workers who have come forward to expose some of the broken system. It has been compelling but really distressing.

What have we seen from the government in response to this royal commission? Over a year ago it got the interim report. It was titled Neglect. That was a big hint. You get the feeling from that that the system is groaning under the pressure. The very first recommendation of that report was for the government to fix the home-care package waiting list. Here we are. We had 100,000 older Australians waiting for home care over a year ago and, today, we still have over 100,000 Australians waiting for home care. Indeed, senior counsel at the royal commission today said that the government need to do more when its to home care; they haven't done enough. There was evidence before the royal commission that, even with all the government's announcements—prior to the budget one—there would only have been 300 actual new home care packages by 2023. That is despite all of their announcements. What we get from that side is a lot of announcements, but, as we know and as the public is learning, we get very little follow-up and follow-through. We don't actually get what the government announces. We get something else. We get all spin and very little in return.

The government has taken some action on the other recommendations, but we still haven't seen the results of those. And then, of course, we saw the COVID pandemic come to Australia. What we've seen, sadly, is 680 older Australians lose their lives in residential aged care. It is very tragic. But, when the royal commission sought some evidence about what had happened in residential aged care, sadly we got another example of the Prime Minister not listening to the royal commissioners. We actually had the royal commission go as far as to say that the government had no plan to deal with outbreaks of COVID-19 in residential aged care. We had the royal commission say that the government had been self-congratulatory and, indeed, had shown hubris. That's the government's own royal commission senior counsel saying that about the government.

Remember what happened. The Prime Minister was asked at a press conference about some of this. Indeed, the journalist said, 'It's now found that there was no plan for the aged-care sector in the pandemic,' and what was the Prime Minister's response? He said, 'Oh, the royal commission hasn't found that yet. It's not a finding.' But, two months later, the royal commissioners handed down their special report into COVID-19, and there we had, in black and white: 'There was not a COVID-19 plan devoted solely to aged care.' That's what it said. The Prime Minister also responded to another question about the royal commission. Again, another journalist asked him a question in relation to a national advisory body about aged care, and he said, 'Oh, no, that's not a finding yet of the royal commission.' Then what did we get? Again, a couple of months later in the report, we actually have, in black and white, a recommendation that the government establish this advisory body. And, of course the government said, 'Yes, we're going to do that now.'

The problem is that the government is not acting soon enough and quickly enough when it comes to the royal commission's evidence, and sadly we have seen the tragic outcome of that in residential aged care. We've had Professor Murphy admit that perhaps they should have had masks earlier in residential aged care and that that could have prevented some deaths. We've had the aged-care response centres that were set up and we have had some evidence that, indeed, they were preparing for a dinghy, not for a Titanic. That's what was said about the aged-care response centres. We've had admissions from the government officials that, if these centres had been set up earlier, if more had been done more quickly, we could have saved lives. That is the devastating evidence that is happening before the royal commission.

We're hearing more evidence about the assaults that are happening in residential aged care. Indeed, the royal commission has heard today that 50 sexual assaults a week are happening in residential aged care. The government has said it would introduce a serious incident response to that, and what have we got? We've got the government saying, 'Oh, yes, we can do that from 1 July 2021.' And then, of course, we had the government trying to bring forward some funding for that. It really needs to get on with it. It is not good enough that this government continues not to listen to the royal commissioners when they are making these findings. We've had two reports from the royal commission. We're expecting the final report in February 2021. The sad reality is that the public do not believe the government and, of course, this failed aged-care minister, who, when he was asked, didn't even know how many people had died in residential aged care from COVID—it was absolutely appalling that he didn't know that. They don't have the confidence that this government can actually respond to the recommendations.

It is incredible that we've had so much defensiveness from the Prime Minister. He wants to talk about how he called this royal commission; it was all his idea. We all know he was dragged to it. We all know they had those reports, they had the Four Corners episode coming up and they had the Labor Party talk about a royal commission, so they called one. What they actually need to do is listen to it and respond, and respond quickly. It is not good enough that we continue to get this defensiveness. We get announcements, we get all the spin but we get very little real action. That is the reality of what is happening in aged care. Older Australians have had seven years of this government. For the first three years the government just ripped money out of the aged-care system, and we're paying for that now. That is the truth of it. They just ripped money out for the first three years. They've been in government for seven years, and the aged-care system is groaning under the weight of their decisions. They need to accept responsibility for what is happening in aged care today.

It is not good enough to continue to have these announcements with very little follow-through coming from this government. When its own royal commission says that the government has had hubris in relation to COVID-19 we know exactly what's been happening on that side, and the royal commissioners are seeing through it. They're seeing through this government and all of its announcements and they're getting to the truth. They're doing a great job of actually responding to what is a system in need of major reform. We have 1.2 million older Australians—and their families and their loved ones—relying on this system.

The royal commission today put out a whole heap of draft recommendations—124 of them. We know that there'll be more to come and there will be the final findings. But the government still needs to respond to the COVID report, as I said earlier. There were six recommendations. The government has been asked by the royal commissioners to come into parliament and respond to the implementation of those by 1 December. Those recommendations talk about funding providers to ensure there are adequate staff to deal with visitors to residential aged care, because we know so many older residents have been locked out from seeing their loved ones and are relying on technology for that; there being more MBS items to allow more allied health services to people living in aged care; publishing a national aged-care plan for COVID-19 and the national advisory body I spoke about earlier; and, of course, appointing infection control officers and working with the states and territories on the deployment of accredited infection prevention and control experts. We all know that if all of this had been done sooner, if the government had responded earlier, there would not have been the number of deaths we've seen in residential aged care.

The royal commission has said that the government must report to the parliament. The government has just 40 days left in which to get this done, to ensure that these staff and these services are implemented by 1 December. I don't think it's up to it, the public don't think it's up to it and the failed minister certainly isn't up to it. The Prime Minister and this government need to do better, because they're failing older Australians. The royal commissioners got it right when they said 'neglect'. The government needs to do better.

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