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

Senator Pratt is correct. On 31 August we announced that we would require all aged-care providers in this country to have a nominated IPC lead within each facility. Just because we say it doesn't mean it magically happens; we had to give the sector time for it to occur. I wrote to every aged-care provider in this country and told them that they were required to nominate their infection control lead by 1 December, and that's what I expect they will have done. We in fact moved ahead of the royal commission on this particular issue by announcing at the end of August we would require every aged-care facility in this country to nominate an infection control lead. We gave them a reasonable period of time to get that position in place and we have given them a further period of time to ensure that the nominated staff member has the appropriate level of qualifications—and we've actually nominated the qualifications they will be required to have by a certain date. We have done exactly what we said we would do in August. We said to the sector we would be requiring them to nominate the lead. We have made it a condition of their accreditation, so they are required to do it. We have done exactly everything we said we would do and we gave the sector an appropriate period of time to get that position in place.