Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Richard Colbeck has worked flat out—absolutely flat out—to do the best he can to ensure that those residents in aged-care facilities across Australia are safe. Listening to the Labor Party, you'd think that somehow there is no pandemic happening anywhere. Listening to the Labor Party, you'd think that all of this is happening in isolation of any context whatsoever. Senators—through you, Mr President—of course every passing of a loved one is tragic. The minister, like every senator in this chamber, of course is deeply empathetic to the grief felt by families who lose a loved one—in particular, in circumstances where they sadly, because of the restrictions that have had to be imposed to keep everybody else in the community safe, pass away on their own. Of course that is tragic, but the reason we have a particular aged-care problem in Victoria is that we have a COVID problem in Victoria. If you look at the—