Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This matter of urgency concerns 335 aged-care residents and 335 people—mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grandparents and friends. This is the number of aged-care residents who have passed away due to coronavirus, and I want to pass on my condolences to their families at this time. I cannot begin to imagine how difficult it has been for families who haven't been able to visit and sit with their loved ones before they died. We hear stories of spouses unable to hold their partner's hand one last time and parents and grandparents unable to see their children and grandchildren in their final moments. It is an absolute tragedy. We are facing an aged-care disaster, and we need real leadership—new leadership—from the Morrison government to face this disaster.

As the matter of urgency motion states, evidence presented to the aged-care royal commission shows that Australia has one of the highest rates in the world of residential aged-care deaths as a proportion of deaths from COVID-19. This is a national crisis and a national shame. So where is the plan to deal with it? We knew this virus was highly infectious. We knew it was deadly, particularly for older people. We saw it happen in other countries first. But, despite this highly infectious disease appearing, no plan was put in place for aged care by this government. There was no plan for infection control, no plan for personal protective equipment—no plan.

The alarm bells really rang back in April when the first aged-care outbreaks occurred, but the lessons just weren't learnt, and so history has repeated itself, with the disease tragically spreading through aged-care homes in Victoria. The Newmarch House report confirms that this is the case—that, despite issues been clearly identified as contributing to those early outbreaks, nothing was done to fix them. There were issues with staffing levels due to quarantine requirements, issues with infection prevention and control, issues with serious shortages of PPE, issues with communication and confusion. But what did the government do to address these issues? What did the government do to address issues that they knew presented huge risks to aged-care centres and to their residents? They spent only half of the funds they committed to addressing surge capacity for staffing. Only one out of five aged-care workers had completed the Morrison government's training on how to correctly use PPE. They did no audit of PPE stock, despite 1,300 aged-care providers requesting access to the national stockpile. Why did the government not address these issues?

The aged-care workforce has been absolutely heroic during this time. They are dedicated, and I know that they are also devastated at the loss of life in aged care. They work hard every day, caring for some of our most vulnerable Australians, but they are underequipped, they are understaffed and they are exhausted. So many are in low-paid and insecure jobs. They deserve better, and so do the older Australians and families who are relying on them.

The aged-care system is broken and it has been for years. Inquiry after inquiry, report after report, review after review all point to an aged-care sector that has been struggling to deliver for the older Australians who rely on it. So who is responsible for this? Is it the Liberal-National coalition that has been in government for seven years? Apparently not, according to the Prime Minister. Is it Senator Colbeck, the minister for aged care? Apparently not. One of these numerous reports, A matter of care, specifically recommended sweeping action to ensure aged-care workers had access to appropriate training. Today, the commissioners presiding over the aged-care royal commission said:

Had the Australian Government acted upon previous reviews of aged care, the persistent problems in aged care would have been known much earlier and the suffering of many people could have been avoided.

The suffering could have been avoided, but the Prime Minister and the minister for aged care haven't listened. They sat on that report for two years, just like they sat on the lessons that could have been learned earlier in the COVID crisis. This is a gross abdication of responsibility. It is a gross demonstration of incompetence, and it is causing families pain, heartache and loss.

Minister Colbeck, when answering questions on aged care in front of the COVID-19 inquiry, couldn't even answer how many Australians in aged care had died of COVID-19 and how many active cases there were. He couldn't tell the inquiry if he had briefed either the national cabinet or the federal cabinet. There is a crisis in Australian aged care, and cabinet may or may not have been briefed on it. Despite this, the Prime Minister and Minister Cormann have leapt to Minister Colbeck's defence. This is the same Prime Minister who has tried to say that his government is simultaneously somehow not responsible for aged care in Australia but also prepared and has a plan in place. Which is it? Because Australians need to see this government step up and prevent more deaths from COVID-19 in our aged-care system.

Enough is enough. It's time to stop shifting the blame. It's time to stop avoiding responsibility. We need solutions, not excuses. Scott Morrison's government is responsible for aged care. It is responsible for making sure there's a plan to keep Australians safe in this COVID-19 crisis, and it's time that they discharged that responsibility.