Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the response tabled by Minister Colbeck to the Senate's order to produce documents related to his failings as the minister for aged care.

Before I begin, I want to put on the record that my contribution will be short and the only one from Labor senators. Many of my colleagues wish to speak on this, but in the interests of allowing the chamber to function and return to government business as soon as possible we will limit our remarks to this.

As of yesterday, 335 residents of aged-care facilities in Australia had died from COVID-19. More than 1,100 older Australians were fighting active cases of the coronavirus. With this motion, the Senate voted for transparency and accountability, two things that we have not seen from either Minister Colbeck or the Prime Minister at any stage during this unfolding tragedy. We thank the crossbench for their support of this motion yesterday. Unfortunately, Minister Colbeck's response, which we've just received today, should come as no surprise to anybody. Look at it: a tiny letter from Minister Colbeck—a three-paragraph letter—responding to the Senate's request that he produce important documents which would reveal the scale of his and the government's failings in aged care. On display in this letter is the same disdain, arrogance and apathy that has directly led to hundreds of preventable deaths in aged-care homes under the Morrison government.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it many challenges for all Australians. This is especially true in our aged-care facilities. But the challenges there weren't unfathomable, they weren't unforeseeable and they weren't inevitable. We have known for a long time that there are fundamental flaws in Australia's aged-care sector as a result of this government's lack of care for elderly Australians. The warning bells were ringing loud and clear when the royal commission released its interim report, titled Neglect. But Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister, was not listening. COVID-19 then hit the northern hemisphere. It was clear that aged-care homes were at risk. The warning bells were ringing, but again the Prime Minister, Mr Morrison, was not listening. Then came Earle Haven, Dorothy Henderson Lodge and Newmarch House—more warning bells, but again the Prime Minister was not listening.

Australia's aged-care workforce was placed under immense pressure due to a lack of training, funding and support from this Prime Minister, Scott Morrison. All of this was known and avoidable. Now, good government plans and good government acts. Bad government does neither. Bad government does nothing beyond self-preservation. Bad government lies, hides and runs away, and what we are seeing now is bad government, and it starts at the very top with the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison.

The Prime Minister chooses his cabinet. The Prime Minister chooses his ministry. The Prime Minister chose Senator Richard Colbeck to be in charge of aged care in this country, and the Prime Minister continues to support him in that role today. Despite every warning on this long march toward calamity, the Prime Minister left an incompetent junior minister in charge of the health and wellbeing of tens of thousands of vulnerable Australians. They now reap what they sow. If he had just listened, he wouldn't now be sidelining his own hand-picked minister after hundreds of preventable, tragic deaths had occurred.

More people are dying every day. They're not just numbers in a report or on a news scroll; they're our parents, our neighbours, our friends and our family—an entire generation of Australians whose health and wellbeing was put in the too-hard basket by a prime minister and a minister who are not up to the job. I was told of a gentleman named Patrick who passed away last week. He was fit and healthy at 90—a man who loved his family dearly and who could answer more questions on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? than you or me. He thought he'd be safe from COVID-19 at his aged-care home in Sunbury. His daughter describes Minister Colbeck's 'complete lack of care and concern' as a complete slap in the face. We mourn Patrick, and we mourn every life lost to this horrible virus. These deaths are reported through facts and figures today, but we can't fathom how they will be felt in time: family stories never told; memories never made; and children and grandchildren whose lives are emptier today because bad government is easier than good government.

It says something about Minister Colbeck that he can so casually defy the will of the Senate through his response here today. He can't answer questions, he can't produce documents and he can't even come to the chamber and deliver his own three-paragraph response.