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

I have received a letter from the honourable member for Franklin proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The Government's failure to listen to its own Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

I call upon those honourable members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Seniors) Share this | Link to 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.

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

I want to thank the royal commissioners for their work, and there's more to be done. I know that today's report was not the report of the commission but a report to the commission. So far, the commissioners have made two reports. The government has accepted all of the recommendations from the first report and accepted all of the recommendations from the second report. Indeed, we responded on the afternoon of 1 October, when the most recent report was related, and accepted all six elements, for the record of the House. It is very important.

The first recommendation of the commission, that the government would provide a final report by 1 December, we've accepted. That's underway. On the second recommendation, the government has announced two packages to provide additional funding for staffing, with regard to visitation for aged care, and we're actually implementing $245 million of funding to support providers with COVID-19 related costs—full acceptance of the second recommendation is already underway, which the opposition unfortunately is not aware of or didn't acknowledge today. In addition to that, the government accepts the third recommendation, in relation to the mental health of residents of aged-care facilities, and we will be implementing that. I've already been engaged deeply in the planning of that with the Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians and with the department. We are within 19 days of the recommendations being made. The recommendations have been accepted, with four out of the six already having been significantly implemented and all six to be implemented.

Ms Collins interjecting—

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Flinders—sorry, the member for Franklin. Sorry, Minister, an error on my part. The member for Franklin, please.

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

In addition to that, in relation to the fourth recommendation, the government has accepted that and will provide a revised seventh stage of our national aged-care COVID plan in response.

An honourable member interjecting—

That's correct, and I'm very happy, and we'll be going through the six previous stages. In addition—

An honourable member interjecting—

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister can continue.

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

In addition to that, in relation to the fifth recommendation, the government has accepted that, as with others, in full. Funding of $245 million is being paid to providers through October 2020—already underway; already being delivered—and that will mandate that aged-care providers have trained infection-control officers, as detailed in the recommendation, on top of all of the other elements. Then there's the final recommendation: accepted, in full. And the government has been working with state and territory governments to implement a decision of national cabinet of 21 August to put in place additional face-to-face infection-control training and establish joint approaches—already underway. That's very important. So I thank the commissioners for their work today and I look forward to their further work.

Let me look more generally at two things: further actions taken by the government with regard to aged care and further actions taken in relation to COVID preparation. In relation to aged care, I think it is important to set out the facts here. We have come from $13 billion in 2012-13, under the previous government, to, in this budget, $24 billion, $25 billion, $26 billion, $27 billion. Those figures matter. In particular, as part of that, what we've seen is a dramatic increase in home-care places. Home-care places have gone from 60,000 places in the last year, under the previous government, and $1.15 billion, to 185,000 places—a tripling of places, this year, under the current government.

I've heard them, on occasion, say, 'Oh, they're just going up in relation to population.' In fact, we've had a 28 per cent increase in over-70s since the previous government was in government; we've had a 200 per cent increase in home-care places, or a tripling, and a 300 per cent increase in home-care funding, or a quadrupling. So funding has grown at 10 times the rate of population of over-70s in that time. So that's against their benchmark of their year. If funding had grown in line with population, it would have grown at 28 per cent; instead, funding has grown at 300 per cent, or 10 times, and therefore it has grown at a dramatically faster rate, and we have seen a dramatically higher increase in services per capita than was the case under the previous government. I think that's important.

It should also be noted that, on two occasions in the last year, the alternative government has had the opportunity to make some contribution. They went into the election and they had zero dollars—

Ms Collins interjecting—

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Franklin.

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

zero dollars in their alternative budget, at a time of $387 billion for home-care places—zero. And then only two weeks ago they provided an alternative budget. This is very important: right now, in this moment, in an alternative budget—and knowing everything that they knew, at a time when we have put in over 70,000 home-care places—they added zero. They found money for other things. They found nothing—nothing; zero; nada—for home-care places. And that's twice in a year.

Having said that, we'll then look at what we've done specifically in relation to support for COVID. It is very important here to understand how Australia compares with the rest of the world. We have had deep tragedy in Australia—

Ms Collins interjecting—

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Franklin—

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

and it is very important—

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order. The minister will just pause and take his seat for a moment. The member for Franklin has brought this matter of public importance forward. Whilst the statement in itself is here to be debated, the subject matter is extremely important to all of our constituents. The constant interjections by members is not doing this debate any good service at all. So can everyone please be in order, and the minister will continue.

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

Most significantly, what we've seen, as the Medical Journal of Australia has shown, is that even though no country is immune, and Australia has had real and significant suffering following the tragedy of community outbreak in Victoria, which translated, sadly, to the loss of life in Victoria, we see that in Italy, the loss of life of elderly residents is 600 per cent of that in Australia per one million population, with regard to care residents. In France, it's 800 per cent. In the USA, it's 900 per cent. In the UK, it's 1,500 per cent of what it is in Australia. In Belgium, it's 1,600 per cent. All of these things are fundamental and show what has happened in Australia by comparison. As the Medical Journal of Australia said, our actions have saved 16,000 lives, on their estimate, by comparison with the United Kingdom.

How has that come about? What are the things that have occurred? I think it is important to acknowledge what the commissioner said today, 'I have, however, detected over the last year—calling up counsel—a growing determination among officials and in the government to fix the problems of the aged-care system and to pursue a genuine reform agenda.' That's because this was our commission and this is our passion, and that's why this year we've invested over $1.6 billion in our COVID aged-care response plan. That began with the first step in January, where we acted immediately in relation to COVID, and moving through the second stage with the plan that was put in place for the national COVID response in February, the national aged-care COVID CDNA plan in March, the update to that which followed subsequently in relation to workforce and PPE support across March and April, the revised national plan and guidelines, again, through March, April and May, and then in June there were the revised national plan and guidelines—again, taking on board the lessons learned. These are the things that have allowed Australia to save lives and protect lives. We want to acknowledge the hardship. We want to acknowledge, as we said from the outset, that if there's community transmission on an epidemic scale, no-one is immune. But what our aged-care workers, our carers, our health officials and the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre have done is to save lives, to protect lives and to make a difference—as acknowledged by the Medical Journal of Australia.

When we look around the world at those catastrophic outcomes in other countries, we know that each life lost in Australia has been an agonising loss for the individuals and for the families, but that the work of Australia—the government, the states, the individuals involved, and, above all else, our carers—has saved lives and protected lives on a grand scale. For that, I thank all involved.

Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The current aged-care crisis that we are facing here, particularly in Victoria, has had a huge impact on us all, particularly in my own electorate of Wills. I understand that this pandemic is unprecedented and mistakes have been made from all levels of government—state and federal—and from both sides of politics. What I don't understand and what I won't accept—and nor should we accept—is a Prime Minister and a minister for aged care who refuse to hold themselves accountable for their lack of planning and for what they were and still are responsible for. Like many Australians, I'm appalled at the Morrison government's lack of accountability and action in the private aged-care sector, which they are responsible for. There are more than 653 families grieving who deserve to know why their loved ones were not protected and why that planning wasn't put in place. Instead of answering those questions, such as why they ignored the warning signs with the Newmarch House outbreak in New South Wales and failed to act, the Prime Minister and the minister for aged care have chosen to dodge and duck and weave at every turn.

In my electorate of Wills, there are hundreds of families and friends of these families who do not have the same luxury of dodging the reality they face. They cannot simply ignore and push aside their grief—particularly those who had loved ones in the St Basil's aged-care home in my electorate of Wills. I've spoken to many family members. There are around 200 COVID cases linked to St Basil's aged-care facility in Faulkner, and 44 people lost their lives. Once again, I send my deepest condolences to all those grieving families. Behind those numbers there are many, many stories. Most who lost their lives were Greek Australians, migrants who came here to Australia and who worked exceptionally hard. They helped build the Melbourne and the Australia we know today. Many worked in factories or started small businesses. They contributed to their communities and they worked hard to give their children a better life here in Australia, and, after all their hard work and contributions, in the end they were effectively neglected by the federal government.

The Prime Minister didn't listen. Indeed, he neglected to listen to the royal commission's interim report. The title should have been an obvious pointer to the Prime Minister; it was Neglect. The report was published over a year ago. The commissioners recommended that the Morrison government urgently fix the home-care packages waiting list, which was described as cruel, unfair and discriminatory. It was another piece of critical advice ignored by the Prime Minister. If he'd listened and if his aged-care minister had listened and acted, this disaster could have been avoided or at least mitigated. Many families would still have their loved ones to cherish. Instead, they had to say goodbye on FaceTime or not at all.

You would think, Mr Deputy Speaker, that after seeing the disaster develop before their eyes they would react quickly to mitigate the extent of it. But, no, the Prime Minister and the rest of the Morrison government stood still. Commissioner Pagone suggested back in August that the government establish a national body dedicated to dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak in aged care. Did the Prime Minister listen to the commissioner's suggestion? No, he did not. He said it was just a proposal. Two months later, the royal commission's COVID-19 special report confirmed in black and white what we already knew: the Morrison government had no plan for COVID-19 in aged care. The facts are stark. As at August 2020, at the height of the outbreak in Victoria, there were 1,923 COVID cases in private aged-care facilities. There were six cases in public aged-care facilities, which are the responsibility of the state government.

The Morrison government's inability to plan and prepare is a catastrophic failure. It's a national tragedy. To those families in my community: I'm truly, deeply sorry for your loss. And to the people in my electorate of Wills and all Australians who have lost loved ones in aged care to COVID-19: you deserve better.

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Normally in this chamber there is an absolute confluence between what I think and what I say, and I would just say on this occasion I'm going to reserve judgement on the member for Wills and politely caution him that Victorian Labor MPs coming into this chamber, virtually or otherwise, and lecturing this parliament about the measures that have been taken on COVID-19 should do so with extreme caution, because the reality is that this government has worked consistently to support the aged-care sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. We have done everything we can to support people and to make sure that aged-care providers are as well equipped as possible to support those people who are vulnerable and in need.

It's not a surprise to anybody in this chamber, and I'm sure many of the speakers who follow me will repeat similar points, that when you have community transmission as we have had extensively in the great state of Victoria—and we can argue about why, and there's a judicial inquiry where misleading evidence has been provided by a number of people, including ministers and the chief health officer—it leads to a spread with a latency of the virus, which, tragically, leads to the infection of many people who needn't have been infected. Of course, the virus was latent in particular amongst those who are vulnerable in aged care. We all know people in aged care—my grandmother is in aged care, as I'm sure are the parents or grandparents of many other members—and we have all felt that vulnerability.

Since March we have had a plan, working with the aged-care sector, to build up their resilience and their capacity. There have been spreads of COVID-19 in aged-care providers in the Goldstein electorate. Like members on the other side of this chamber, I'm sure, I've called those aged-care providers, reached out a hand of support and said, 'Is there anything I can do to connect you to the department, to support, to getting access to the PPE that's desperately needed, to the minister?' Both the Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians and the Minister for Health have been explicit in their preparedness to support and assist, answer any question and respond as necessary, and they have done so.

Can I tell you what I have heard—and I say this with sadness, not with any sense of political glee. The feedback I have got from aged-care providers in the Goldstein constituency is that their problem is not with the federal Department of Health, it has been with the state Department of Health Human Services. I say that with absolute sadness. It's incredibly frustrating. They have been frustrated because they have found a lack of access to PPE as a consequence of the decisions made by the state government. That has not only put at risk the lives of those who are clients of aged-care services; it has put at risk those nurses and carers who work in that sector. That's why we have done so much to support them and to fill that gap.

Comments have been made by the member for Franklin and the member for Wills suggesting that this government has been negligent in its support for aged care over a long period of time. I'm sorry, but that is just misleading this parliament. The minister has just gone through, step by step, the funding that is available to the aged care sector, a sector that works hard to support those people in need. It actually belittles and demeans the members opposite to belittle and demean the sector of people who, literally every day, give the most support they can to assist people who are at a vulnerable stage of life. Year after year we've had record increases in funding. In fact, from 2012-13 to next financial year, there is an increase of 103.2 per cent in total funding. It's irresponsible to come into this place and argue these cheap political talking points that come from the opposition.

And I say that particularly in the context of Victoria. All of us have different opinions about how we can manage this crisis. Yes, sometimes people think some people have done things wrong—and I certainly have very strong views, particularly in the context of the Victorian government. But our focus should be on what we can do to assist, and that is where the Morrison government's focus has been.

Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The discussion this afternoon is about one of the most vulnerable sectors of our community. There have been more than 680 COVID related deaths in residential aged-care facilities but there is no readiness plan for any sort of pandemic. This system has never been stress tested. There has been no plan in aged care.

In the Liberal government's first budget after they came to office in 2013, there was a $1.3 million cut in aged care. That was never returned. They are thinking in the never-never now, but once recommendations are made by the royal commission they'll have to do something. They are sitting on their hands waiting while, regrettably, 680 people have died. This government has staffed the sector of funding, which has resulted in a workforce shortage, underpaid and undertrained employees and a lack of PPE. At the start of the pandemic there was one pair of gloves per day for aged-care workers dealing with people in a vulnerable state—and they say they had a plan! They had responsibilities, and they have been shown to be lacking. And now we see that the sector itself was thoroughly unprepared. From Newmarch onwards, you could see the lack of preparedness in the sector.

The health minister will no doubt stick to his line from July this year, which was that the sector is 'eminently prepared'. That's certainly not the evidence coming out of the royal commission today. In fact, that's not in any of the evidence taken by the royal commission. It's seen a litany of stories of things such as open wounds infested by ants, malnutrition, starvation. Even today one in five are being maltreated. This is a national disgrace. And it's not just that there's some corporate responsibility out there. Aged care is the responsibility of the federal government.

Now, you can cut back all the agencies around it. You can cut back regulatory authorities that are supposed to be doing their job. But thing the thing is that ultimately you cannot give away responsibility. You can't shoulder that somewhere else. This government just will not live up to its responsibility when it comes to aged care. As a matter of fact, I think they thought all their problems in aged care went down the drain of a kerosene bath years ago.

I think the royal commission did call this right in their interim report: Neglect. You can't run around it. This is a hand-picked royal commission—by the way, a royal commission they were taken to kicking and screaming. It wasn't their idea. Labor certainly campaigned on this. The community and the sector campaigned. The government were forced into it. But what have they done since? As I say, they want to sit on their hands and wait to see final recommendations. We should be taking steps to ensure that we fix a broken system, to ensure that residents in aged care get the care they need and deserve.

We would expect that every public dollar going into aged care would find its way into care itself. Only recently I was reading about some big providers making some really big profits in this sector—like $59.9 million profit. One of those organisations was not even providing paid pandemic leave for its workers. These are workers that are surviving on average pay of $23 an hour. No wonder they've got to take extra jobs and work in multiple areas. They're trying to make ends meet. So this is how the providers value care. It's about time we realised this is about the workers who look after our loved ones in a very vulnerable state. This is the value that we put on them for their care. We don't need a royal commission to tell us this is broken. We need to muscle up to our responsibilities and make the changes now. (Time expired)

Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand here to remind people in this House of the complexity of the aged-care system. I don't know how many on the other side of the House have been to visit their local aged-care facilities, but I have been to visit almost all of mine in my electorate. I'm sure that those on the other side have as well, because they're very important facilities that as a member of parliament I feel very responsible for.

It is true that the federal government invests heavily in the aged-care sector. It's important also to recognise that, in the international context of the aged-care system, every developed country is dealing with an ageing population. It is something we understand on this side of the House because we know that our ageing population is ageing because our healthcare system is so good. We're ageing in a healthy way and we're living longer. But what this means is that we have a changing aged-care sector. This side of the House is investing very heavily in increasing services to the aged-care sector.

One of the most important things that we have done on this side of the House is invest in home-care packages. This is something that the public want. We've heard over and over again how people want to stay in their homes longer. They're healthier because of our healthcare system and our excellent preventive health, but they also want to stay home longer. This has been something that this government has done a lot on. In fact, we've had a tripling of places for home-care packages from 60,000 when we came to government to 185,000 now. This is something very welcomed by my constituents.

But the other side of the coin is that, with an ageing population, we are seeing a more rapidly ageing population in aged-care facilities because people are staying home longer. This is actually a good thing and something to be celebrated. But, as a result, the increased pressure to the aged-care facilities and sectors means that the aged-care sector is rapidly changing, and that is why it has been important for there to be a royal commission. In fact, virtually one of the first things Prime Minister Scott Morrison introduced was this royal commission into aged care. As the Minister for Health has just said, it's our commission and it's our passion. That is because we understand how important our senior citizens are to our community. They've worked hard to build our country and they deserve a good end of life as they grow older.

What I would say is I believe the other side has been very misleading with regard to the fatalities that have occurred during COVID. Each and every fatality is an enormous tragedy. I know that there are 653 families who are mourning the loss of a loved one from COVID in the aged-care facilities, but it is misleading to say that our response has been insufficient with regard to the COVID pandemic. Let me be very clear about this: there have been as many, if not more, healthcare workers infected with COVID as aged-care workers, and yet we do not hear people saying the healthcare sector is broken. The different between the two is that older Australian are the ones who are unfortunately at greater risk of fatality.

We know that it's when COVID gets to a very a high level of community transmission that it gets into these facilities, whether it's aged-care facilities or healthcare facilities. If you really look at the statistics, what's very interesting is that, per capita, Australia has one of the lowest fatality rates in the aged-care sector, compared to the UK, Italy and the US. We have a mortality rate 15 times lower that Italy's and 53 times lower than the UK's. That is because we had a very rapid response to the COVID crisis, with a national COVID plan, increased investment in PPE and huge amounts of resources being thrown at the problem to make sure that we could protect our vulnerable citizens. I'm very proud to be part of the Morrison government, which cares and supports our older citizens.

It is misleading to say that there hasn't been plan. There has been a plan. You can go on the website and have a look for yourself. And, as the Minister for Health has said, it has been revised many times throughout COVID. I have been on the phone to the CEOs of aged-care facilities in Higgins, and I know that many other members in this chamber have done the same in their own electorates. Australians understand that we care about our aged-care citizens and our aged-care facilities, and I welcome the fact that the royal commission has been looking into this issue. It's more complex than the opposition would like to present.

Kristy McBain (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ignoring the crisis in aged care is just plain cruel. It's a dereliction of duty. Yes, it is complex, but the job of government is to face complex issues and get the work done on behalf of all Australians. That's what everybody in this chamber has been elected to do. The Morrison government was dragged to the aged-care royal commission, but, to date, those opposite have wasted and ignored the very wisdom and experience they sought to empower. The royal commission's interim report, titled Neglect, was published over a year ago. It's a heartbreaking title, and it gets my attention, but apparently not the attention of the Prime Minister or his failed minister for aged care. The commission recommended the Morrison government urgently address the waiting list for home-care packages, a waiting list that was described as cruel, unfair and discriminatory. These are feelings that I fear ring true for 608 elders in Eden-Monaro who are currently on the waiting list. As the COVID pandemic grew, the commission suggested that the government establish a national body directed to deal with the outbreak in aged care. They failed to listen, and heartbreak followed for over 680 families, including my own.

Earlier this month, my family farewelled my 91-year-old grandmother, Gladys Hobson. Nanny Hobby had been living with dementia in Victorian care for some time, but her final six months came with extra distress for her and for my family because of the collapse in services on this government's watch. We weren't able to visit, and the regulations that put shareholders before the people they should have been caring for meant that my nan suffered from starvation. Indeed, her aged-care facility had the largest outbreak of COVID outside metropolitan Melbourne. My mum, Kaye, helped to nurse and comfort Nanny Hobby through her final weeks, drawing on her 15-year career as an aged-care worker herself.

Mum talks about this part of her working life as being a privilege—a privilege to care for, connect with and protect people who have lived lives big and small but who have all made contributions to our community. I know everyone who works in aged care feels the same. I want to honour your service and thank you for what you do. You are the people who day in and day out make the best of this failing system for the people and families in your care. Everybody agrees we need to do better, but those charged with the task simply don't hear the call from the royal commission and indeed every Australian family. We need to put the care of these vulnerable people at the heart of aged-care reform and deliver for people and families, not shareholders.

I want to make special mention, too, of young people living in aged-care facilities. We hear your need and so does the royal commission. In its interim report, the commission flagged the need to stop the flow of younger people going into aged care and asked that the process of getting younger people out of aged care be expedited. There is no reason to delay action on this work.

In my own electorate, in Queanbeyan the community presented us with solutions for this, following from Yvonne Cuschieri's own experience of having to put her son into an aged-care facility as he was dealing with a terminal disease and she needed some respite. The Commonwealth and New South Wales governments say they are supporting respite care for Queanbeyan by building a six-bedroom, purpose-built facility for younger people, but as yet there is no funding to support its ongoing operation.

South of Queanbeyan, in Cooma and Jindabyne, the community is asking for action. The home of Snowy 2.0 needs more aged-care places. Regional people want to grow old in place surrounded by their families and friends and the environment and culture they know and love and that was so central to their younger years. But the choices of these people are limited. These communities are crying out for help, and yet this government doesn't appear to be listening. The foundations of our aged-care system have buckled under the pressure of 2020, and the solutions are there for all to see. Indeed, the solutions are there and can help build on our recovery from COVID-19, because the care economy creates jobs—jobs in Queanbeyan, jobs in Cooma and jobs in Jindabyne.

We're naturally geared in regional communities to look after each other. Above all, we want dignity and decency. The Prime Minister and his failed aged-care minister must do much more to ensure older Australians are safe and receiving high-quality care. I hope Australians don't have to wait for an Albanese government to be elected next year for— (Time expired)

Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Eden-Monaro for her contribution to this debate. I would, however, humbly point out that it's not just members of regional Australia and rural Australia who are geared to care; members of my community care for lots of people in aged care as well. Members of Australia who live in metropolitan areas care greatly about other members of their communities. That's the thing about the Australian community: regardless of where you may live, regardless of what you might do, we care for each other. It is not simply the reserve of those who live in the bush.

It has been said that the great enemy of truth is not the lie, which is deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth: persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. I ask this House to consider whether this MPI does not exactly resemble what that statement warns against. The members for Wills's contribution today was to say that, while there were many deaths in privately owned aged-care facilities in Victoria, there were only six in the state government run aged-care facilities in Victoria. What he failed to mention was that the state government of Victoria does not actually own or operate that many aged-care facilities and that all of those aged-care facilities are in rural and regional areas where there was no community outbreak.

It's that level of misinformation, that level of myth-making, that level of contrivance in attempting to take the loss of 680 lives in our aged-care facilities and turn it to political advantage that I stand here today to rail against. Shame on those opposite for using the deaths, and the families of those people who suffered due to those deaths, for some political point-scoring. It is absolutely extraordinary that the member for Eden-Monaro would say that this government has ignored the crisis in aged care and that is cruel.

The previous government were given a report by the Productivity Commission, and for four long years Mark Butler, who was otherwise an excellent minister for aged care, sat on that report. Julia Gillard, the then Prime Minister, sat on that report. There was a lack of investment in aged care and there was a lack of capacity built into aged care while the Labor Party dithered, absolutely dithered, in trying to do—what? To do nothing? And it did absolutely nothing, and people suffered.

This government has acted. Every time the royal commission has made recommendations, this government has responded. The myth from those opposite is that we have not. Not only have we responded; we have taken action. We have taken action to care for those vulnerable Australians that those opposite talk about all the time but do so little to help. We have this experience—

Ms Collins interjecting—

Yes, but when you were in government, Shadow Minister, you did—

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Mackellar!

Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

nothing for four years while people suffered.

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Mackellar will direct his comments through the chair, thank you.

Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So that is what we suffer. For 15 years, I worked in the aged-care sector. I saw the aged-care sector in the early 2000s. Many of the aged-care homes resembled Dickensian workhouses, with the overwhelming stench of urine; with four residents stuck in a room; with residents often pressing their buzzers, waiting for someone to come and help. I have seen what the injection of private sector innovation and funds and investment into this sector has done for the lives of these people who have very little time left on this planet. I have seen the innovation in care. I have seen the difference that we have been able to make in this country by opening up this sector. I have seen the damage that government intervention created. For those opposite to claim otherwise is, simply put, dishonest. (Time expired)

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The members on the other side who have spoken on this matter of public importance have forgotten to mention one major point—one major point—about this whole debate, and that is that, in the first few years of the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison government, they cut nearly $2 billion out of the aged-care sector—$2 billion. You do not take $2 billion out of a sector and expect it to run better than how it was running. Taking out that $2 billion had a massive impact on this sector.

We didn't really need a COVID-19 pandemic to highlight the flaws in the aged-care system. We already knew that the aged-care system had problems. They've had problems with training, staffing, funding, transparency, oversight, regulation and safety. That's why we on this side pushed for a royal commission. Those opposite were dragged kicking and screaming to the table. Many times in this House we called for a royal commission into the aged-care area. But, if anyone in Australia was in any doubt about these problems, then this pandemic has demonstrated in no uncertain terms that the government has severely come up short in the way that it treats older Australians.

The foundations of our country's aged-care system have buckled under the pressure of this pandemic. They've absolutely buckled. And the Morrison government have done nothing. They have done nothing to stop it. It's been two years since the royal commission began and we're almost nine months into this pandemic. Following the deaths of 680 older Australians, the government needs to explain why it isn't listening to its own royal commission suggestions. There's been one failure after another by this government. For example, over a year ago, the royal commission published its interim report, called Neglect. This report recommended that the government fix the home care package backlog, with the commission describing it as 'cruel and unfair'. But have the government fixed it? No, they haven't. They came in here during the budget and threw some numbers around, with a few extra packages. But, when you've got over 100,000 people on the list waiting for an aged-care package and you release a few thousand that will take effect over, I think, three to four years, then you are just plugging one hole and a massively bigger hole is ripping open. There are over 100,000 people waiting. I have had constituents—we all have, and I am sure those on the other side have as well—who have died while waiting to receive their package. I'll give you an example. Ninety-eight-year-old Zofia of Kilburn is still waiting for a package after being assessed over a year ago. She was assessed twice, and she's still waiting. How much longer does this woman have to wait? She is 98. It is absolutely cruel.

Next the commissioners suggested, in August, that the government establish a national body dedicated to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak, especially given that aged-care residents make up 75 per cent of all coronavirus deaths. But the Prime Minister chose not to implement that suggestion either. As a result, two months later, the royal commission's Aged care and COVID-19: a special report confirms the government had no plan for COVID-19 in aged care. Aged care is a responsibility of the federal government, not of anyone else. The royal commission's special report confirms that the Morrison government had no plan for COVID-19 in aged care. That is even though, at that stage, we'd already witnessed the devastating effect COVID-19 was having on older people and aged-care residents in New South Wales and in other parts of the world. We aren't just speaking about the direct health implications of the pandemic; we're also talking about the growing levels of depression, anxiety, confusion, loneliness and suicide risk among aged-care residents since the lockdowns, and there is no mention of the lasting effects on family members who had to let their loved ones die alone and couldn't hug them one last time.

We have been consistently calling on the Morrison government to act to address minimum staffing levels, fix home care waiting lists and ensure transparency in funding, and I must say the government has not done the right thing by older Australians and their loved ones. (Time expired)

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This really is an important MPI. Some are just political battles, but this is a really important issue. I have more aged people in my electorate than most members have in three or four electorates, and aged care is a huge part of the Lyne electorate. We had a diatribe coming from several members on the other side, and I want to correct the record, because I deal with the facts, not the emotion and the made-up allegations of some of those who spoke earlier.

First of all, it was Prime Minister Morrison who called the royal commission. There were allegations made that we were dragged kicking and screaming to it. But I just checked the record, and he called it in September 2018, which was after the Leader of the Opposition at that time, the member for Maribyrnong, was asked whether he supported a royal commission into aged care, and his response was, 'Um, as for a royal commission, I don't know.' That was on Q&A on 11 June. That is the first thing.

The other thing I'd like to bring to the attention of members opposite and people listening is that The Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Ageing Agenda website state that there have been 1,000 fewer deaths in aged care in this current year than there were for the whole of last year, before the pandemic struck. I looked at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare death figures in aged care in 2012 and 2013 and, in those two years, 245,000 people passed on. In the last couple of years there has been 32,398. There are less people dying now, even with the pandemic. As the member for Mackellar said, there has been a rapid increase in the standard of care in aged care.

There are some institutions that have failed. They have failed miserably. That's why we set up the aged-care royal commission, but before that we set up the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. We've increased funding every year since 2013. It was $13 billion annually when I was first elected to this House. It's up to $24 billion now.

The other thing they were criticising us for was home care packages. When they were in government and then left the government benches and we took over the responsibility, there were 60,000 home care places and now there are 185,000 funded places. In the last budget we added another 23,000, we added 6,000 back in July. The number of people waiting for a home care place has gone down by 20 per cent. These are facts, not allegations.

I noticed that when I started pointing out the facts the member for Franklin departed. Even her interjections couldn't drown out the facts. The fact is that there are things that need to be improved in the aged-care system, but we have been doing it. The royal commission's direct responses have all been addressed. There has been action taken on them. I've mentioned the home care packages. There's the extra funding for dementia training. On the other thing about too many people in aged care being heavily sedated, medication management programs, policies and education programs have been rolled out. Guidelines have been changed. There was also a criticism of there being too many young people in aged care, but the numbers have reduced from the 6,000 two years ago to 4,860.

We are addressing the problems and correcting them. There are more funds in aged care, because of the COVID response, whether or not we're doing these reforms. The response centre was criticised. The problem of aged-care deaths was because there was a community pandemic and the pandemic came in through the front door, because there was community transmission. That is a public health issue. The aged-care institutions aren't necessarily set up as sterile institutions like hospitals, so it's a real step change when a pandemic rolls through an aged-care system, but look at what has happened oversees. What we have done is exemplary in a very bad situation.