Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I want to start by acknowledging our extraordinary aged-care workers, our nurses, our personal care workers, all of the staff that have helped Australia to have one of the lowest rates of loss of life in aged care over the course of a global pandemic. It is a global pandemic. Today the world has passed 400 million cases, officially. The real case load is likely to be between double and triple that, according to the World Health Organization. We have had loss in our country, but it is an extraordinary fact to note that we have not just one of the lowest rates of loss of life in the world across the entire population but we have saved thousands of lives in our aged-care facilities. There has been real loss and real pain, and we should acknowledge that, absolutely, but looking at what we see in other comparable nations is a guide to that which could have occurred on a different path. In Italy the loss of life in aged-care facilities has been almost 200 per cent that in Australia. In Ireland it has been over 300 per cent, in France nearly 600 per cent, in Canada over 600 per cent, in the USA over 700 per cent, in Spain over 700 per cent, in the UK over 900 per cent and in Belgium over 1,300 per cent of those that have lost their lives in Australia.

We have two other differences. One is that we count every life lost which has a COVID-positive diagnosis, no matter what the final cause of their passing, and we know that almost 60 per cent of those who have passed in recent months, for whom there are records, have been in palliative care. We grieve their loss and we note those circumstances. We also know that, of those countries that I mentioned, many were unable, during the early waves, to identify all those that had passed. There was a significant excess mortality rate in those countries, which was never accounted for with the reconciliation of COVID cases.

In Australia we've actually had a negative mortality rate over the course of the pandemic. We're one of the few countries that has actually had fewer people pass than was otherwise expected to be the case. That is almost unimaginable. Over the course of a global pandemic nearly six million lives have been lost officially—inevitably more than double that, if not triple, according to the World Health Organization, in the real toll. Yet Australia has actually had a decrease in our mortality rate, not only across the country but also within aged care.

We know that, sadly, the latter part of the journey in so many lives occurs in aged care. It's precisely because people are not able to maintain all of their own needs that they go into residential aged care, for a loving, supportive environment. Since 2015, going on a year-by-year basis, the percentage of those who pass in aged care in any one year has been 24.3 per cent, 24.3 per cent, 24.5 per cent, 23.1 per cent and 23.7 per cent. In 2020 that actually dropped, to 22.8 per cent. So the percentage of those who passed in aged care, as a proportion of residents, declined to its lowest level in the last seven years in 2020, and it remained at one of the lowest levels, 23.8 per cent, in 2021.

So what we have seen is that lives have been saved in a very significant way. That's come about through a comprehensive action plan for aged care, commenced in March 2020, with the earliest work being in February 2020 as part of our aged-care coronavirus plan, which has now been through over eight different iterations. That has involved, firstly, a vaccination plan, with a rate of over 99 per cent amongst staff—one of the highest rates, if not the highest rate, in the world. That in turn has been backed up by a first-vaccination rate of over 90 per cent for residents and a second-vaccination rate of 89 per cent for residents.

We've completed a booster program across every facility—every residential aged-care facility under Commonwealth care and protection in Australia. That has now seen a take-up of over 80 per cent, contrary to some of the figures put around falsely by others, of boosters amongst the eligible population. I want to thank all those involved—our vaccinators, the organisers, Operation COVID Shield, our general practitioners, our nurses—in delivering that program.

In terms of PPE, this year alone we have seen over 50 million units. That includes 17.7 million masks, 6.8 million gowns, 20.9 million gloves, 4.2 million goggles and over 10.9 million rapid antigen tests delivered since August of last year. All of these elements have come together to support our aged-care facilities. And, yes, we have put in place a retention bonus—an $800 retention bonus—which replicates that which was used on three previous occasions to recognise and support staff retention. We've backed that up with over 80,000 shifts which have been put in place. We've added the support of the military, through Operation COVID Assist, which does add to what has already been there—through those 80,000 shifts that have been provided by surge staff, through staff returning and through annexed staff.

All of this has come together, and it's come together against a greater background, where we have now put in place over $18.3 billion of funding—the greatest increase in funding for aged care in Australian history. That has come about as a response to the royal commission, which this government called, which looked at multigenerational challenges. We didn't walk away from them. We recognised—the Prime Minister; Ken Wyatt, who was then the minister; Senator Colbeck, the current minister; and I—that, in our time and on our watch, it was our duty to rectify the challenges that had been part of the historical treatment of aged care, where we have gone from multi-bed wards to overwhelmingly single-bed rooms, which are becoming increasingly supported and better supported. That funding included over $7 billion for home care; over $7 billion for residential care; funding for governance; and funding for making sure that there's training and support for nurses. All of these elements have come together.

What I particularly want to highlight as well is that we have strengthened the healthcare system and we have put in place ICU support and ventilator support. These things have been incredibly important. I want to acknowledge, in relation to ventilators, the work that has been done, because they are about protecting our oldest Australians, not only within residential aged care but within the community. We have a capacity now of over 7½ thousand. We have purchased 8½ thousand on our watch, all from Australia—7,000 from ResMed and 1,500 from Grey Innovation. They include 2,000 invasive ventilators and 6,500 non-invasive ventilators. And, because our capacity has so exceeded demand, we have been able to support Indonesia with 1,000 ventilators and India with 3,000 ventilators. We had a peak ventilator capacity of 206 COVID requirements on 16 October. Since then, there has been a reduction of over 40 per cent in those requiring ventilation.

Against that background, I was genuinely surprised and utterly shocked to hear the Leader of the Opposition say on Insiders that we haven't had enough ventilators. To have an aspiring prime minister make a statement on national television which undermined the health system and which was so palpably false was an utter betrayal of the high honour, duty and responsibility which comes with being not just the Leader of the Opposition but somebody who aspires to be Prime Minister. To either not understand or be reckless, or, worst of all, to carelessly make a statement about our hospital capacity which is so utterly false—not out by a little bit but by orders of magnitude—shows a total lack of care, a total lack of diligence and a total lack of understanding of what has been done in this country.

Ultimately, there has been hardship, difficulty and sadness. But what we have seen is one of the highest rates of vaccination, one of the lowest rates of loss of life, one of the lowest rates of loss of life in residential aged care, and one of the strongest economic recoveries, and, as part of that, we have kept Australians safe. (Time expired)

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