Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to this motion on aged care and on the unimplemented recommendations from a number of reports over the years. Both the government and aged-care providers had in fact ample opportunities and warnings about the devastating impact of COVID-19 and the impact it could particularly have on residential aged-care facilities. As we have discussed in here before, there were examples from Spain, Canada and the United States. Despite these warnings, the government failed to put in place adequate preventive measures to stop the entry and spread of COVID-19 in aged-care facilities. They failed to learn from the examples here in Australia. They failed to show the leadership and action that was needed.

I would like to touch on, for example, one facility that we've heard about in the media, which is in Pinjarra Hills in Brisbane, which demonstrated that COVID-19 spreading through facilities is not inevitable. In July, a staff member from this facility in Pinjarra Hills tested positive for COVID-19. After identifying that they had been at a number of high-risk sites, the staff member sought to test immediately. But the facility managed to squash a potential fatal outbreak through their strong primary and secondary preventive measures. Bolton Clarke, the provider that runs this facility, started preparing facilities for potential outbreaks back in February and March this year. They created the enhanced resident protection measures manual, which included 31 different measures focused on preventing the entry and spread of COVID-19 in aged-care facilities. They implemented screening for staff and visitors back in March. They organised low-risk transport for staff who were previously relying on high-risk transportation. Critically, they put in place practices around cohorting staff and residents early on. Staff were cohorted into specific wings within each facility to prevent mixing of staff and residents across the sites. They also implemented surge staffing, where in high-transmission sites staff surged by 130 per cent on pre-pandemic levels. Where staff surging was not available, staff were required to wear full PPE when they moved outside their home wing within the facility. The combination of these preventive measures and preparedness allowed Pinjarra Hills to avoid a deadly outbreak of COVID-19. The infection was brought under control quickly and no other staff or residents tested positive for COVID-19.

As their CEO said on Radio National Breakfast:

There has been a focus in recent months on … preparation for outbreak once COVID comes into an aged-care service. From our perspective, that's not sufficient. By the time the service goes positive, it's too late. So we need to get upstream. We need to identify what are those factors. What's the chain of transmission?

Outbreak measures are too late. Older Australians shouldn't have to suffer because the government is focused on outbreak measures instead of preventive measures. It is just not fair. If one provider understood the risks and did their homework back in February and March, why weren't other providers stepping up? But, more importantly, why weren't the government driving that? Instead of doing self-assessment, why weren't they in there auditing them all and making sure they were prepared for an outbreak and not treating it as inevitable, which is what the minister in his answers to both questions in the COVID committee and repeated questions here in the Senate keeps saying?

They've acted as if it were inevitable. It's not inevitable! This evidence shows it's not inevitable. The measures that this provider put in place are not rocket science: screening and cohorting workers; wearing PPE—not providing additional PPE once you have an outbreak in a facility; and cleaning high-touch spots. Those things result in good infection and prevention controls.

It's time to ask who is bearing the brunt of these failures. Older Australians are suffering and dying alone due to these failures. It's time we changed our approach. Do not rely on, 'It's inevitable that this is going to happen.' It's not inevitable. There are things that we can do. Of course we need to act to prevent more outbreaks in Victoria, but we need to act now to stop outbreaks around this country. Get ahead of the game: put preventative measures in place. (Time expired)