Wendy Askew (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the matter of urgency regarding aged care raised by Senator Keneally. I noted with sadness Senator Colbeck's advice earlier today that there have been 335 COVID-19 related deaths in aged care. I offer my sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of these 335 people who have lost their lives. Just 12 months ago my mother was in an aged-care facility in Launceston. I was fortunate to be able to visit her frequently in her final months. While I understand how hard it is to have a loved one in care, I cannot fathom how difficult it must be for those who cannot see their mothers, their fathers, their grandfathers, their grandmothers, their aunts or their uncles because of the COVID-19 restrictions. That is a heartbreaking scenario. I also want to extend my sympathies to the Australians who are living with COVID-19, or who are currently in isolation due to the impact of COVID-19 on their communities. It is a difficult time.

As we heard earlier today, the total number of active COVID-19 cases in the aged-care sector nationally stands at 1,761 residents, including residential and in-home care. There are currently 126 aged-care services with active cases. This government is determined to ensure that a safe environment exists in aged-care facilities. As we all work together to contain the spread of COVID-19, there is no doubt that we are facing an extraordinary health challenge in containing this virus. We must work together to protect our most vulnerable people against it.

The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, and Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians, Senator Richard Colbeck, have made supporting aged-care facilities to contain coronavirus their prime focus. The safety and wellbeing of aged-care residents is our No. 1 focus. Where there have been large clusters of community transmission it has been very hard to keep COVID-19 out of aged-care services. This, sadly, is what has happened in Victoria. Once the virus got into these facilities the results were devastating, despite the efforts of staff in those facilities to adhere to the required infection controls and screening programs.

We are working hard to contain this virus. All Victorian aged-care facilities with active COVID-19 cases are receiving support from both the Australian Department of Health and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to ensure residents continue to receive essential care. This support includes a single case manager for each facility, access to PPE, testing in the facilities themselves and access to additional staff as needed. In addition, as we heard from the Minister for Defence during question time today, AUSMAT has been deployed to Victoria to assist with managing the COVID-19 response and ADF personnel are on site in some residential facilities, with additional clinical reserve staff available should they be needed. The ADF supported our health staff when there was a coronavirus outbreak in Tasmania's north-west earlier this year, for which we as a state are so grateful.

Health staff from Tasmania have put up their hands to help Victoria in this time of need, as have staff from Western Australia, the ACT and Queensland. Contact-tracing staff have been brought in from New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland to assist.

Our government has scaled up aged-care support programs in Victoria and across Australia, recently committing an extra $171 million to boost the COVID-19 response plan in aged care. This brings the total of Commonwealth funding for the aged-care sector to more than $1 billion since this pandemic began. Infection control training programs, surge workforce staff and additional compliance by the aged-care commissioner and coordinated response centres will all benefit from this extra funding. The funding will provide $81 million for an additional surge workforce and increased training for aged-care workers; $8.4 million for supplementary payments to include quarantine costs and interstate staff; $50 million to account for additional demand for retention bonus measures; $9.1 million for the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre—established with the Victorian government to boost their additional workforce while undergoing more training—to ensure a workforce that can quickly respond to outbreaks in other states; $12.5 million to support aged-care residents and their families who have experienced a COVID-19 outbreak with grief and trauma support services; and more Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission compliance and quality checks on aged-care providers, specifically checking on preparations and responses to COVID-19 outbreaks. Other funding measures include $205 million to help residential aged-care providers meet costs associated with COVID-19 and almost $48 million to extend the Business Improvement Fund for another year to help residential aged-care providers in financial difficulty. Regional, rural and remote areas and those affected by bushfires have been prioritised for fund applications.

We're also putting more funding into helping older Australians stay at home, including $59 million for meal delivery services like Meals on Wheels and $10 million for the Community Visitors Scheme to ensure those in aged care are not socially isolated due to visiting restrictions. Indigenous elders living in urban areas are also being supported with transport to medical appointments, welfare checks, meals and other measures to lessen the impact of isolation.

Senator Keneally claims the Morrison government failed to plan to protect older Australians in aged care, but I would argue that this government has been preparing and planning its response to COVID-19 in residential aged care since January this year. We have been working with the aged-care sector and state and territory governments to build a strong but flexible response to this virus, incorporating lessons from our own successes and those of other countries as we go.

Specific guidelines for COVID-19 were issued by the Communicable Diseases Network Australia to the aged-care sector on 13 March and have been updated twice since. These guidelines and response plan include infection control guidance designed specifically for residential aged care; COVID-19 training for the aged-care workforce; visitation restrictions that keep residents safe but are also mindful of the need for those residents to remain safely connected to their families and communities; rapid provision of PPE, clinical expertise and an additional skilled workforce to support care and contain transmission in the event of an outbreak; and COVID-19 pathology testing and access to telehealth to ensure residents continue to safely receive needed health care.

This government is delivering record investment across the aged-care system, with an estimated $25.4 billion forecast for 2022-23. By comparison, Labor's investment in aged care in 2012-13 was $13.3 billion. On average, that is an extra $1.2 billion in support for older Australians over the forward estimates each year. Making improvements to aged care for all senior Australians continues to be one of this government's key priorities. That is why the Prime Minister called a Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. We're committed to providing senior Australians with support to live in their own homes for longer. New home-care packages have increased from just over 60,000 under Labor in 2012-13 to more than 164,000 in 2022-23. This is an increase of more than 170 per cent. Over that same period, funding will have increased by 258 per cent due to growth in high-level packages.

The viability supplement to support services in rural and remote Australia has been increased by 30 per cent, as has the homeless supplement. This government has also established a new independent Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, implemented new consumer focused Aged Care Quality Standards and the Aged Care Diversity Framework, introduced a new mandatory national quality indicator program and put in place a new single Charter of Aged Care Rights.

But it is not just about investing in a COVID-19 response, more aged-care places and improving the framework around compliance within the aged-care sector. This government has invested $185 million to support the Medical Research Future Fund, with a focused mission on ageing, aged care and dementia. This fund will support older Australians to maintain their health and quality of life as they age so that they can live independently for longer and access quality care when they need it.

Reduction in risk, prevention and tracking of dementia will benefit from $21 million of investment in 13 research projects. Dementia is Australia's second-leading cause of death and something we are taking seriously. To this end we have established the Specialist Dementia Care Program and provided more funding to support dementia behaviour management through advisory services and training for care workers.

More funding has also been provided for aged-care services for First Nations people, including grants for aged-care providers delivering services to Indigenous people to help purchase equipment and undertake minor works, and $60 million has been allocated for capital grants for infrastructure works in rural and remote areas. This government takes aged care seriously and it will always protect older Australians.