Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

There are four failed ministers in this third-term Liberal government. The first appointment was the former senator Mitch Fifield, who had no interest at all in aged care. Then we had Sussan Ley, who is back in the ministry, who had no interest in aged care. Then we had Minister Ken Wyatt, who had no capacity to deliver anything in terms of reform of the aged-care sector. Now we have Senator Colbeck—what an embarrassment for this government. Aged care was always going to be in trouble when this virus hit this country. There is nothing new there, because this government has not had a minister that was interested enough to make sure there were plans in place. This didn't suddenly hit Australia before anywhere else. This pandemic was known. We already knew because we'd had 14 reports into the aged-care sector during the terms of this government, telling each and every one of them the problems that we had through lack of resources, lack of training, lack of staff and lack of money. When he was Treasurer, this Prime Minister ripped $1 billion out of the aged-care sector. He used the aged-care sector as an ATM. No wonder the sector couldn't cope when COVID-19 hit. There are fantastic staff and good providers in this sector, and I take my hat off to them each and every day when they are doing the best that they can.

The Prime Minister made a commitment after the last election that he was going to make aged care a priority. He is accountable and he must be held responsible for the issues and the crisis in the aged-care sector now. But we know the Prime Minister doesn't want any accountability. He certainly doesn't want any transparency. He is standing by his man. This minister has failed older Australians miserably. Even today in the chamber he still couldn't get the figure right. He still couldn't get the figure correct. He said 385 older Australians had died. The figure is 335. We understand that he is a minister under pressure. But older Australians and their families deserve so much more.

When COVID-19 hit our shores we knew that older Australians would be some of the most vulnerable in the community to be susceptible to this virus. The aged-care sector was already in crisis. This is a government who called a royal commission into its own failings. They already knew that the sector was in crisis and they did nothing about it. To have a junior minister being responsible for the aged-care sector is unacceptable.

When we were last in government—and bearing in mind this is the third term of this government—we held aged care in the priority that it should be by having a cabinet minister. We have been calling on each and every Liberal government since then to elevate aged care into the cabinet but they have failed to do that. What they have done is used it as a cash cow and ripped $1 billion out—by the Prime Minister when he held the portfolio of Treasury. We know they have been underfunding it. We know that there have been in excess of 14 reports since they have come to government and each and every one of those has given us the warnings. There are red lights flashing all the time. There are not enough staff and not enough resources. Money is being ripped out.

It needs to be regulated. We need to have national training. We need to ensure that there is uniformity across this country. We have been told time and time again. They must have realised there were some issues when they called the royal commission. We have had the interim report and what have we seen? No real action from the government. What they want to do is use that royal commission as an excuse. The Australian people are not going to accept it. One of the good things about calling this royal commission was it got the media and the Australian people interested. Now is the time for the Prime Minister to step up and act. (Time expired)