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

I rise to take note of the ministerial statement from Minister Colbeck. I start by making clear that the Labor Party's capacity to respond to the substance of the minister's statement to the Senate is limited. It's limited because the minister has displayed a high degree, an unusual degree, of secrecy around this statement. It is the usual practice, the usual courtesy displayed by ministers in the Senate, to provide a copy of a ministerial statement to the shadow minister in advance of tabling it. I can advise the Senate—and thereby advise the workers in aged care, and the residents in aged care and the families that care for them—that that did not happen. The shadow minister for aged care received a copy of this report at 6 pm by email. In fact, it's been incredibly hard even to work out the purpose of the ministerial statement from the minister today. So allergic are the Morrison government to scrutiny, so fearful are they of scrutiny of their custodianship of the aged-care portfolio and the care provided to our parents and grandparents in aged care, that they couldn't even bother to provide adequate, usual courtesies of giving the statement to the shadow minister prior to giving it here in the Senate today.

But why should we be surprised? This is a minister who has turned his back on the scrutiny of this place, a minister who persists in his role despite being censured by this Senate for his mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic in aged care. It demonstrates he's learned nothing. The aged-care royal commission's special report provided the scrutiny that the government clearly needed. Really, it's not just the government that needed it; it's the residents of aged care in Australia who desperately needed it. The staff who work tirelessly in aged care, underpaid and overworked, needed this scrutiny too. And the government's response is important for the families and loved ones of the 685 people, older Australians, who died from COVID in aged care. The government's response will be scrutinised by the opposition. We'll look to see what they've learned, to see if their mistakes will be repeated. The minister and the Morrison government ignored warning after warning and failed to protect for COVID-19 in aged care. They displayed the pretence of a plan. Who could forget the Prime Minister standing up and waving around the Australian health sector emergency response plan for aged care, or what he said. There it is in paragraph 4.1.4: 'The Australian government will also be responsible for residential aged-care facilities'—black and white!

The government said they had a plan. The government said they were responsible for aged-care facilities and the maintenance of PPE, of infection control, of workforce protection, of looking after our parents and grandparents in the middle of a global pandemic. They said, in this document, that they were responsible. And then, when we had an outbreak, what did they do? They found someone else to blame.

What does Scott Morrison do when he's under scrutiny and pressure? He finds someone else to blame. He tried to pretend all of a sudden that aged care had nothing to do with him; it wasn't a federal government responsibility. Lo and behold, it's a public health responsibility. It's all the states. Just like quarantine, just like the Ruby Princess, just like everything else to do with this pandemic—Scott Morrison has looked for someone else to blame. It's usually a state government, because apparently all the things the Commonwealth is supposed to be doing, under our Constitution and our federal system—border control, aged care, quarantine—are suddenly no longer federal responsibilities. They sit with the states. When it goes right, Scott Morrison is there to take the credit, and when it goes wrong he avoids the blame and finds someone else to blame for his failure.

I want to point out to those who might be watching this debate that this week the government tabled another report, the 2019-20 Report on the operation of the Aged Care Act 1997. This goes to the hubris of this government when it comes to aged care. That report failed to acknowledge a single death from COVID-19 in aged-care facilities. We've got an aged-care report on the Aged Care Act 2019-20 and not one acknowledgement of the fact that 685 people died in residential aged care. Perversely, this report congratulates the government on its achievements in infection control, minimising transmission and maintaining a safe environment in aged-care facilities. Talk about patting yourself on the back. That's going to be really cold comfort to the almost 700 families with a loved one who contracted COVID-19 and died in an aged-care facility this year.

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety's special report into COVID-19 stated that the Morrison government did not have a plan for COVID-19 in aged care. I noticed the minister got up for his statement today and began with a whole lot of laudatory comments from supposed experts—they may be experts; I don't know them personally. I do know one expert, and that is the royal commission, staffed with experts who were appointed by this government. They're experts in aged care and they've been studying the problem. What did they say? They said the statement in this document—this plan—was no plan at all, and that the Morrison government did not have a plan for COVID when it came to aged care.

By the way, let me just acknowledge the remarks of Senator Steele-John earlier, when he said the government didn't have a plan for disability when it came to COVID. He's right. He's absolutely right. Aged care, disability, the vulnerable—the government is leaving people behind, just like stranded Australians. This government is leaving people behind. It is shameful when they're leaving behind our grandparents and our parents—vulnerable older Australians who cared for their children, who built their businesses, who contributed to their community, who fought in wars. These are the people this government is leaving behind to fend for themselves.

The royal commission's report into aged care for COVID-19, this special report, stated that there was difficulty for aged-care workers in accessing PPE, there was insufficient infection control training for aged-care workers and there was no surge workforce strategy document. It's not like they didn't have warning. They've had Earle Haven in Queensland; Dorothy Henderson Lodge in New South Wales and Newmarch House. These were all warnings that they didn't heed. To listen to this government and this minister, you'd think they couldn't have possibly imagined ever having to replace an entire workforce in an aged-care facility, but it had already happened a year earlier, and yet they had no plan for it. They did not have any idea how many aged-care staff were working across multiple sites. If there's one thing this COVID pandemic has exposed, it's not just the shocking neglect of the Morrison government when it comes to aged care but also the shocking impact of insecure work—that is, people who do not have job security and who have to work multiple casual jobs. When it comes to aged care, that happens. We know it happens, yet this government had no plan to try and understand the extent to which it was happening—again, a failure to imagine, to anticipate and to plan when it comes to the impact of COVID on aged care.

The lessons learnt from the early mistakes in aged care were kept secret for too long. They were not made public in a timely manner for the entire sector to learn and adjust. By the way, I'm tired of hearing how much we are 'learning'—700 dead people later. We should have learnt a lot earlier. I'm also tired of hearing the government say that they've put $1.7 billion into the aged-care sector to deal with COVID-19. Do you know how much they cut out of aged care when Scott Morrison was Treasurer? It was $1.7 billion—the exact same amount. Don't pat yourselves on the back over there that you put $1.7 billion in, when you took $1.7 billion out under this Prime Minister when he was Treasurer. That is the neglect. The aged-care royal commission has an interim report into this government's handling of the aged-care sector, and it is titled Neglect. It talks about people starving in their beds, soiled in their bedclothes with ants and maggots in their wounds. That is what we went into COVID with: an aged-care system in neglect, and 700 people died. For the government to continue to pat themselves on the back is a shame. Neglect is the shame of our aged-care system.