Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The signature on the bottom of the letter proposing this discussion of a matter of public importance is that of someone well known to me. I genuinely have a great deal of faith in and respect for her, so I know this has not been done with mischief. But, when you read it and it talks about ‘the need for the government to treat the allegations of sexual abuse in residential aged care facilities as a matter of national priority’, clearly the assertion is that this government does not see allegations of sexual abuse in aged care as important. At best, I would have to say that that is misleading and it does not really represent truthfully or accurately the actions of the minister in any way in this matter. The letter goes on to talk about restoring public confidence in residential aged care and a crisis in confidence.

I would like to deal with the first part initially. I would like to put the record straight. The implication behind this matter of public importance is that the minister has not acted or that he did not act quickly enough. I think this minister—a minister new to this portfolio, I might say—has acted decisively with quick action in this matter. He met personally with the grand-daughters of the alleged victim at the centre of the George Vowell case. His department has undertaken inquiries not only into the content of the issue—and much of that is a police matter, of course—but also into the way that the complaints system works, and he has given the two grand-daughters a personal undertaking about exactly what he will do to improve that system. That is an immediate action.

He has also made contact with the family of the alleged victim at the Millward nursing home. This minister is obviously a personal individual. He is happy to display a personal touch at a very grave time for everybody involved—not only the victims but the families of the victims. They have a very reasonable right to assume that their grandfathers and grandmums or fathers and mothers are looked after in the very best way.

He also called a meeting of the Aged Care Advisory Committee, which will take place on 14 March. Senator McLucas indicated that this committee would not have any particular expertise in dealing with victims of sexual assault. I am not in a position to advise whether that would be the case, but I do know that they are the key national stakeholders in the industry who represent aged care and I would have thought that that advisory body would be able to deal with every single aspect of aged care in Australia. I think the criticism of those sorts of people does the senator no service.

The minister immediately wrote to his state and territory ministerial colleagues and he asked them to provide assistance in a collaborative approach to improving the system. Not only have we dealt with this personally but we have dealt with the process, and the department is undertaking an investigation of the complaints system process. The minister decided that there should be a collaborative and partnership type approach, yet we are seeing cheap political shots in this place. He wants a collaborative approach with his ministerial colleagues around Australia to ensure that this is a national priority.

He has also established within the department a high-level task force to ensure that the feedback through this Aged Care Advisory Committee gets dealt with immediately. He wants fast, decisive action—and that is certainly not the implication behind this matter of public importance. To suggest that this particular set of actions is doing anything less than treating the issue as a national priority has to be put down to cheap political point scoring. These actions by the minister have been quick and decisive and have shown good leadership, and I am very proud to be part of a government that would provide a minister of this quality.

The second part of this MPI states the need for the government:

To restore public confidence in residential aged care in Australia by investigating these allegations and reporting openly on the findings.

Of course, the implication is that we are either (a) not investigating these allegations or (b) somehow going to hide the findings. I spoke personally to the minister about this when I realised I was supporting him on this matter. I understand that of course the process would be a publicly reportable process but obviously within the confines of the Privacy Act and the notion of privacy that should be afforded to all people in these very difficult circumstances. Clearly that is going to be the case.

I want to talk about the contribution from the other side. There is talk about a crisis in confidence, particularly from Senator McLucas. It is okay to make these rhetorical noises about the accreditation system, the certification system and the complaints system, but let me remind those in this place and the Australian public that the only reason we have an accreditation system, a certification system and a complaints system is because this government put them in place. This government is not about sitting on its laurels. This government and this minister are committed to making a good system better. From today’s contribution, the opposition is only interested in running the government down for political purposes. If you are all about avoiding a crisis in confidence, one of the things you do not do in this place is stand up and attempt to mislead people by indicating that this government has not put this up as an absolute national priority. The opposition is scaremongering by not indicating that this is about four people out of 100,000. I have to put on the record that there should be nobody in aged care who suffers like this. I am appalled that there would be a human being who would want to perpetrate any harm on the elderly. It is beyond my belief.

These things happen and it would be just scaremongering to say that this is somehow commonplace and this government is not taking this as a national initiative. The continuous criticism of the aged care sector and of the vast majority of the providers and carers that has happened in this place over the last week I think is absolutely outrageous. Those are the sorts of outrageous comments that mislead, are scaremongering and actually undermine the confidence of the wider community. They do so unnecessarily. I am pleased to see that we have a minister who is happy to act decisively and who is happy to act in exactly the right way and in the interests of those people in his care.