Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians (Senator Colbeck) and the Minister representing the Minister for Health (Senator Cash) to the questions asked by Senators Bilyk, Pratt and Urquhart relating to aged care and the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.

Here we have a minister for aged care who, while a pandemic raged through our country and took a terrible toll, most particularly on the most vulnerable, on residents in our aged-care facilities, was incapable of taking decisive and timely action to meet the government's responsibilities to this sector. He gave every impression of not being on top of his brief and freezing on the job. From his answers today, I have no more confidence in his abilities or the ability of the government that he's part of to manage or respond to serious infectious outbreaks and pandemics in aged-care residential facilities.

This pandemic has taken the lives of 685 residents of these government facilities, leaving thousands grieving the loss of partners, husbands, wives, parents, grandparents and great-grandparents and often dear, life-long friends. It has left in its wake traumatised residents and traumatised staff. Six hundred and eighty-five Australians are dead. These are our loved ones; these are those who cared for us, loved us and deserved better—better care from their government and better respect for the contribution that they have made to our country. They deserved action and they deserved a government with a plan. They deserved a federal minister who could move fast, who could lead. At the very, very least they deserved a mention, an apology, even in the government's response to the royal commission's report, Aged care and COVID-19: a special report. But what did they get? They got a response from this minister no faster than a glacier moves. This is a lumbering government in denial, constantly trying to deflect and deny responsibility, constantly saying it had a plan and failing to show anything for it.

I have looked through the government's response to the aged-care royal commission's special report into COVID-19. I have listened to this minister attempt to answer the questions that I put to him in the chamber here today and yesterday when he was in here talking to that document. I heard nothing but self-congratulations, slippery words and hubris, the same self-congratulations and hubris that the royal commission itself criticised.

Minister Colbeck, the truth is that your response and the response of the miserable, careless government you are a part of has been totally inadequate, glacially slow and massively disrespectful to the lives of 685 Australians and their loved ones. The truth is that you are now only putting into effect actions that you should have taken in March and April. When infections tore through the aged-care facilities in Europe, this government should have taken action. When the first COVID-19 infections occurred in New South Wales, the government should have taken action then. It's December now, and that was March, and to date 685 Australians have died. They didn't get a mention from this government in response to the aged-care royal commission's special report into COVID-19. Even now, by your own admission, you've had no way of monitoring or knowing how effective the government's response has been. I point out to you recommendation 6:

… the Australian Government should require providers to appoint infection control officers and should arrange for the deployment of accredited infection prevention and control experts into residential aged care homes.

Here we are, 1 December, and the response is that it's in progress. Infection control surely should have been the No. 1 priority of this government back in March. In August, the government promised that residential aged-care facilities would have 'a designated infection control officer on site'. Here we are, in December, and the minister can't tell us whether they've been appointed, how many experts there are and how much training has been done. It's in progress, you say. That's not good enough. In fact, it's pathetic. A great many Australians have suffered because it's not good enough. The government is not good enough, and it's a sham.

For many months, the minister's been saying that the government has a plan for aged care. And what do we find in December? You've accepted a recommendation that you have a plan for aged care. It beggars belief. It leaves us quite sure that we're right to be fearful and angry. If this government can't respond in an effective and timely manner to a pandemic, then imagine how hopeless its response is going to be to the final report. (Time expired)