Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Why does the Prime Minister downplay the human tragedy in aged care by boasting that 97 per cent of aged-care facilities do not have a COVID case among residents when more than 70 aged-care residents have died in the past week and more than 360 residents have died since this pandemic began?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I don't accept the assertion that the Leader of the Opposition has made. On every occasion I've spoken on these matters, whether it's the very specific cases and the individual deaths of Australians that have been impacted or particularly those four facilities in Victoria, when members opposite have asked me about those matters I've addressed each of those issues. In fact, on 75 occasions, 75 questions, we have responded specifically to the issues that have been presented.

What I have also done, when questioned about preparedness and when questioned about the plan—I think it's important that Australians also know that the actions that have been taken by the government, working with other governments, have also been able to prevent what has occurred in some places from occurring in many, many other places in Australia. What we have been able to do is reassure Australians, particularly those who have families in residential aged care and those in residential aged care themselves, that while the community outbreak we have seen in Victoria has got into the aged-care system—and we have sought to respond to that, and we've been able to contain that impact as much as we have been able—the impact in Australia, when you look at how COVID has presented in our aged-care system, is that there have been eight per cent of facilities that have had resident infections. When you look overseas, at similar countries, 56 per cent of facilities have had resident and staff infections in the United Kingdom.

So Australia's actions have made a difference, I would say. I think it's important to give people hope about these things. On every occasion, we have shown absolute respect and absolute understanding and sympathy for the impacts on those families. For the Leader of the Opposition to suggest otherwise is, I think and I would hope, very unlike him. It is, I think, a very unreasonable thing to have presented in this place, and I would hope that he wouldn't stoop to that level again.