Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

This week—today, even—we have heard the aged-care minister, Senator Richard Colbeck, gloating about how 97 per cent of facilities in this country haven't had a COVID outbreak. Every time I hear the government gloat about their performance, I think of the pain that must be inflicted upon the family members of those who have died in residential aged care of COVID-19—the daughter who lost a father, the son who lost a mother, the grandchildren asking what happened to nan and pop? The idea that the government got it right, that they have a high-water mark 97 per cent of the time, would be cold comfort to those 353 families who have lost a loved one in residential aged care to coronavirus and to those over 1,100 families who right now have a family member with an active coronavirus case in residential aged care. Each one of those numbers is a real person. Each one of those people is loved.

I want to share a story. Donna from Clifton Springs, near Geelong in Victoria, shared her pain. She lost her father, Patrick, to COVID-19 on Monday a week ago. He caught COVID-19 in the aged-care facility. Donna wrote: 'On the news I watched with disgust as the Prime Minister talked about aged care. For him to say 97 per cent of the time we have got it right, along with Richard Colbeck's complete lack of care and concern for what has happened, is a complete slap in the face to families like mine who have been affected by this tragedy. Dad was 90 but was in good health. He was an amazing man who loved his family dearly and who could answer more questions on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? than you or I. He did not deserve to die the way he did. I believe together we can all help to implement change in the industry, such as mandatory infection control for all staff, so this does not happen again. Dad died an unnecessary death and I don't want that to be in vain.' One of the saddest parts of Donna's story is that when she asked her father if he wanted to come live with her at the start of the coronavirus outbreak, he said, 'No, I'm safe in here.' People like Donna's father, Patrick, entered aged care to be looked after and cared for in their older years. At the time Donna contacted my office her father was one of 107 cases in that aged-care facility alone.

All those people, the thousands of people in aged care across Australia, and their loved ones deserve a government that's got a plan to keep them safe. Instead, they have a government that has let them down. My heart breaks for the people across Australia who have lost loved ones in aged care to COVID-19. Our thoughts are with all the families dealing with grief and loss, particularly people in Victoria, whose grief would be compounded by the lockdown.

In question time yesterday, when asked about his handling of this crisis, the aged-care minister rejected the premise or the assertion in the question no less than eight times. The Prime Minister even gloated in his party room this week about how his government handled the COVID aged-care crisis. What type of person, let alone a Prime Minister, gloats when families are losing loved ones? What type of Prime Minister flippantly dismisses questions? What type of minister comes into the Senate and dismisses questions outright? Is the Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians unable to answer these questions because the answers are so bad or because he is so incompetent? When it comes to aged care the federal government is in charge. They fund aged care, they regulate aged care, they have the legislation that determines the quality of aged care. No matter how much the government or Mr Morrison might claim the responsibility is shared, they are responsible for aged care. The buck stops with the Prime Minister.

Instead of treating this global pandemic of a highly contagious disease particularly affecting older people with the seriousness that it deserves, the Morrison government has failed. Mr Morrison left Senator Colbeck in charge of aged care. He is an incompetent junior minister who is in over his head. He is a minister who said this week that we are 'extremely fortunate'—these are his words—in how COVID has been handled in residential aged care. He said Australia is in 'a relatively good position' and the government had done reasonably well. Senator Colbeck is a minister who hasn't even briefed his cabinet about the crisis in aged care. He hasn't even briefed the national cabinet about the crisis in aged care. This is a minister who can't remember, or didn't bother to learn, how many people had died in residential aged care when he appeared before the Senate COVID committee.

The Morrison government failed to have a competent minister and failed to have a plan for the COVID-19 crisis unfolding on their watch. Evidence heard at the royal commission into aged care has confirmed that there was no plan. This week, royal commissioners stated that 'independent measurement and public reporting is essential for the good operation of the aged-care system'. The royal commission said:

It is unacceptable that in 2020 the aged care system is still without this. 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.

That's the royal commission saying that the government's failure to have a plan has led to the suffering of older Australians in their care. The Prime Minister and his aged-care minister have failed to act. They've failed to equip the aged-care workforce with the training and equipment that they need to protect older Australians. Elizabeth from Williamstown, Victoria, contacted my office and shared her story. It's the one Senator Wong alluded to. I'd like to share Elizabeth's words with the chamber. This is about her mother, who contracted COVID-19 in aged care: 'The residents had been kept in their rooms 24 hours a day without fresh air or mobility. My mother was asking me to tell them to give her pills for her to die today. When she went to hospital with COVID symptoms, they found she also had a secondary infection in her chest and a UTI. She has been left in soiled nappies for hours on end and on many occasions for a whole day. I feel sorry for the staff, they are so under-resourced, and the manager is happy that I am complaining, saying, "You can be my voice."' What kind of system is it where it's the children of desperately ill people—who want to die rather than stay in the aged-care system run by the Morrison government—that the staff are relying on to speak up for them? That's because the government haven't listened. They haven't listed to the frontline workers, they haven't listened to the Health Services Union and they haven't listened to the aged-care royal commission.

These stories are hard to hear. I acknowledge that. Minister Colbeck clearly feels uncomfortable—so uncomfortable he had to leave the chamber and not hear these stories. Well, he should feel uncomfortable. This is happening on his watch during his time as the minister. He is responsible. Minister Colbeck is overseeing a system where older Australians are being left soiled for days on end. Minister Colbeck needs to own the fact that, as the Neglect report found, older Australians are going malnourished in residential aged care. They've been left with maggots in their mouths and ants in their open wounds. The aged-care system is broken and it needs to be fixed, and if Minister Colbeck can't do that they need to get a minister in there who can. They need to do it and they need to do it now.

We've got dark days ahead—Victoria remains in lockdown—to get the spread of COVID-19 under control. Sadly, we are going to see more people die in residential aged care. My heart breaks for them, for their families and for the workers in aged care who entered their profession to protect and to care for older Australians. Until we have a vaccine for COVID-19, we must be doing everything we can to protect aged-care residents. What is unfolding across Australia's aged-care system is tragic. It is devastatingly sad. But the saddest thing of all is that all of this was preventable, if only the Morrison government had listened and acted, and had a plan to protect some of our most precious and vulnerable citizens in residential aged care.