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

Thanks, Senator Sheldon, for the question. As I've said a number of times in this chamber, every death that's occurred in aged care as a result of COVID-19 is an absolute tragedy. Each of the 681 who have passed away is an absolute tragedy, and my condolences and the condolences of my colleagues in the government go to every single one of those families. It is absolutely tragic that these people have lost their lives.

At all times, the government has acted on the appropriate health advice of the time. It's very easy for the Labor Party to come in here with the 20-20 vision of hindsight and make comments and/or allegations, but all through this pandemic this government has acted on the advice available to us at the time from the health professionals that have been guiding us. We have continued to do that and we will continue to do that. We will continue to update our plan as we learn more about the virus and as we learn more about the way that it acts within residential aged care. As we have learnt more, we have applied that to our response, and that is clearly evident in the work that we've done in particular, for example, in Victoria with the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre.

On each occasion, we have worked with the sector and provided advice to the sector, and we will continue to do that because it's appropriate to act on the health advice of the day in the best interests of aged-care residents within Australia.