Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I seek leave to move a motion relating to the censure of the Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians, as circulated in the chamber.

Leave not granted.

Pursuant to contingent notice of motion standing in my name, I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate (Senator Wong) moving a motion to provide for the consideration of a matter, namely a motion to give precedence to a motion of censure of the Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians.

This is a motion which goes to the failure of this minister to take responsibility for the devastating crisis in the aged-care sector, which has caused death, grief and untold trauma for vulnerable Australians and their families. We move this motion because ministers are accountable to the parliament. Despite the protection racket being run by Mr Morrison, Senator Colbeck is accountable to this Senate and Senator Colbeck has been found wanting.

How much grief and loss must be suffered by Australians as a result of the incompetence of this minister? When the incompetence of a minister is measured in the sum of lives lost, when the most vulnerable of our older Australians are the victims of this neglect, when does this chamber say someone must be held accountable? When the consequences for Australian families is the death of a loved one, the consequence for the minister responsible cannot simply be a shrug.

A government senator interjecting—

I'll take that interjection. You know what is shameless? His failure to take responsibility and your involvement in the protection racket. That is what is shameless. That is what is shameful. A minister cannot simply about absolve himself of responsibility by shrugging and blaming someone else. He cannot absolve himself of responsibility for death by neglect simply by saying that that is a function of aged care, because the deaths by neglect are a function of the neglect of aged care by this government. $1.7 billion was ripped from aged care by Mr Morrison when he was Treasurer. The situation is so dire that Mr Morrison was forced to call a royal commission into the government's own mismanagement of aged care—a royal commission that summarised this government's care of older Australians in the title of its interim report, Neglect.

There were warnings from overseas, where aged care was ravaged well before COVID-19 took hold here. There were warnings from experts and unions representing carers. Carers were given one glove and had to choose which hand to put it on. There were warnings from tragedies already experienced in Dorothy Henderson Lodge and Newmarch House in New South Wales. These are warnings that have still not been acted upon by a government that even now has not produced a COVID-19 plan for aged care, despite more than 460 aged care residents, on today's figures, having died. The royal commission has said:

Had the Australian government acted upon previous reviews of aged care … the suffering of many people could have been avoided.

Yet even now this minister ignores the royal commission.

Yesterday this government made more announcements. Senator Colbeck, like Mr Morrison, loves to list his announcements. But you know what? Announcements don't save lives. It's delivery that matters. It's follow-up that matters. Until Senator Colbeck delivers on the recommendations of the royal commission, the one word which will always come to mind at the sound of this minister's name is 'neglect'. The royal commission has warned Senator Colbeck it will take an additional $620 million per year to improve the aged-care system, and once again this minister ignores yet another warning. He says, 'We'll wait and see what the final report says.' Well, when lives are on the line, when the neglect in the Morrison government's aged-care system is clear, why is this minister putting off until later what he knows older Australians need today?

Ultimately, this neglect is not just on Senator Colbeck; it's also on Mr Morrison, and we will soon see if it is on every senator opposite. Will they be part of the protection racket Mr Morrison is running for Senator Colbeck? Will they be part of that? The neglect of our most vulnerable older Australians is in Senator Colbeck's name, but it is not just in Senator Colbeck's name; it is in the name of even each and every senator who shields him from accountability. There is no-one on that side who has confidence in this minister anymore. The Senate should do the right thing and censure this minister.