Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Are aged-care workers in Victoria still working across multiple facilities?

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The guidelines that were put in place were designed to provide incentives and they were designed to provide direction, but they were also designed to provide the flexibility so that no workplace would suffer a shortage. That was designed in conjunction with the sector and in conjunction with consultation right across the country.

Whilst there is a very clear direction, under medical expert guidance one of the most important things that must happen is to make sure that there are always workforce members available. We put in place incentives, we put in place additional payments and we put in place a surge workforce. In fact, there are four elements of surge workforce which we put in place: (1) on 11 March we provided surge workforce with $101 million; (2) on 13 March we had the public hospitals agreement to provide for surge workforce; (3) on 31 March we had the private hospitals agreement, which provides for surge workforce; and (4) in April we also had the testing agreement to provide for the testing within facilities. All of those elements come together—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll just ask the minister to resume his seat. I'm calling the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the member for Corio.

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A point of order on relevance. It was a very direct question that invites a direct answer, not ducking and weaving about responsibility.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the point of order, I do think he addressed the substance of the very direct question at the beginning of his answer. As I've said before, Practice makes clear that I can't compel a yes or a no. But I would say to the minister, now that he's answered that question—unless he's going to add any more information to the question that's been asked—it's not an invitation to talk about other areas of aged-care policy.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I'm very happy to conclude there with the principle that we've added that surge workforce but we've also followed the medical expert panel advice, and that is absolutely fundamental.