Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Aged Care, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Ageing (Senator Santoro) to questions without notice asked by Senators McLucas, Moore and Marshall today relating to aged care.

The pattern that was established by the Minister for Ageing in his responses to questions yesterday has been confirmed today. Yesterday, Minister Santoro refused to answer specific questions about the George Vowell aged care facility and the Immanuel Gardens facility on the Sunshine Coast. Yesterday, he either avoided, dismissed or did not bother responding to questions. They were specific questions that demanded an answer. They demand a response not only for the people who sit in this chamber but also for the community, which is seeking to understand the appalling events that we have been confronted with over the last eight days—appalling events that require the minister to come clean with the Australia community and tell us what has been occurring. But, unfortunately, today the minister again did not answer specific questions that we believe demand a response.

In fact, the minister did not even acknowledge the questions in some of the responses that he made. He did not acknowledge the issues that have been legitimately raised to try to understand the atrociousness and appalling nature of the allegations that we have heard. I asked the minister today whether he could confirm that a resident’s allegations of abuse, at an unnamed facility in March 2005, were dismissed by the provider, with the police being called only when a second allegation of a similar nature was raised. He said it was ‘disturbing’. We know that. It is disturbing to everybody. He is the minister and we demand that he moves on from ‘disturbing’. We are all disturbed, but the minister for aged care has a responsibility to explain to the community what has led to this set of events. How does it happen that a facility allows nine months to elapse between an allegation occurring and the police finally being called?

I asked the minister what action was taken. He did not even respond to that question. He did not make any attempt to tell us what action is being taken to investigate why that occurred. He did not try at all to explain what he is doing to investigate the claim that an elderly woman was forced to confront the person who allegedly attacked her. None of us can move away from being appalled at that. I think it is the most shocking example of inappropriate dealing with an alleged sexual assault event to make a person, an older person with a brain injury, confront their attacker. But Minister Santoro did nothing to explain that today. He did nothing to tell us what he has done in terms of investigating that complaint. This man is the Minister for Ageing in Australia. He has the responsibility to explain to the community what is occurring in a facility that allows a circumstance like that to occur. I asked him if he had full confidence in the protection provided to frail elderly residents under the government’s aged care system. I asked a similar question of him yesterday. Yesterday, he did not provide the Senate with the view that he had full confidence in the department, in the aged care accreditation agency or in the complaints resolution scheme.