Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks for the question. It's not appropriate for me to be directly engaging with the royal commission. That's not an appropriate thing for me to do. We can, through the department, provide information to the royal commission on request, but I have to respect the royal commission and its terms of reference as they've been established by the government. That is my responsibility. So for me to reflect in any way on the royal commission would not be appropriate. It is not an appropriate thing for me to do, and I have taken advice on previous occasions about whether or not I should be engaged directly with the royal commission, because there have been some things that I've thought it was appropriate to do. So I have, I think, expressed the government's view quite frankly with respect to what we would like to see in relation to the royal commission. The royal commission has put out a public statement that it will be investigating the circumstances of COVID-19 in aged care—I think quite appropriately.