Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia's aged-care system is broken. It is a national shame. In too many cases, it is delivering neglect and harm instead of care and compassion. Australia's aged-care system is in crisis. It has been in crisis for years, since well before COVID-19 hit. So what have the government done to take action on this crisis? Where is their response? Where is their plan? The government's inaction on aged care has been absolutely tragic—tragic for aged-care residents, tragic for their families and tragic for the staff that work so hard to care for those residents, because they've all been let down. They've all been let down by the Morrison government, a government that takes far too long on urgent issues and far too long to take life-saving action on issues that the government have known about for years.

This bill is no exception. The Serious Incident Response Scheme is no exception. This is a scheme that we need. It's a scheme that we've known that we've needed for years. The government have taken far too long to implement it. The elder abuse figures in Australia are absolutely shocking. We know that research from the aged care royal commission has shown that almost 40 per cent of those living in Australian aged-care facilities experience elder abuse in the form of neglect, emotional abuse or physical abuse. This is a national shame.

This research was released at the end of last year and this wasn't the first time that elder abuse was raised as an absolutely urgent issue to this government. Three years ago the Australian Law Reform Commission released the findings from their investigation into elder abuse in Australia and they recommended the implementation of a serious incident response scheme then—just like the one included in this bill.