Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make a contribution to this debate today because it is vitally important. Let me say first up that my heart, my thoughts and my prayers go out to those who have lost loved ones in the midst of this pandemic, particularly those who have lost grandparents and dear friends in what has been a tragedy in the aged-care system in Victoria.

The privatisation of aged care has been proven in this pandemic to be an absolute failure, and it has been a long time coming. Those who work in this sector have been warning for years that there were problems. For years those workers—often some of the lowest-paid workers in the health profession and in the service delivery sectors—had been warning that the privatisation and the desperation for profit over care was making aged-care homes right across the country more and more dangerous.

Why haven't we been able to get this system right? For too long, older Australians have not been given the care, support and health care that they deserve. And one of the key problems we have had in the midst of this pandemic is that those working in the sector, who are trying their best, themselves have not been able to access the appropriate supports, whether that's appropriate PPE, or paid leave if they too are sick. We need a clean-up in the aged-care system and we need to fix our leave system, so anybody who is sick doesn't have to go to work. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.