Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I wouldn't agree with what Senator Sheldon has just said, because we actually did start very quickly implementing around issues raised at Dorothy Henderson Lodge. I actually have answered this question before, in question time earlier this week. We very quickly learnt the issues around workforce, and at Dorothy Henderson Lodge we didn't at that point in time have our surge workforce provisions in place, and we had to rely on some capacity from New South Wales Health, which they provided. But within a week of the Dorothy Henderson Lodge outbreak we actually did have our surge workforce processes in place. Our contracts were in place very quickly. So, as I've said—and I said it this morning—as this pandemic has progressed, as we've learnt things that we need to address, we've continued to do that. We actually did put surge workforce into place. We announced the $101 million on 11 March, which was only seven days after the Dorothy Henderson Lodge outbreak commenced.