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

I thank the senator for the question and attempting to answer it for me! I'm not here to play word games. The aged-care sector is suffering extreme difficulty because of COVID-19, particularly the omicron strain at the moment. There's been significant commentary with respect to the state of the sector over the last week since Senate estimates last week, and, yes, Senator, the Prime Minister made his statements and views known as well.

My focus is to work to support the sector to help them get through the current situation. It is extremely difficult, and the work that I've been doing all through the pandemic—and let's remember, we are in a global pandemic here—is to work with the sector to assist them to get through the current situation.

The ANMF—to take up the interjection from Senator Watt—described it as a crisis in 2012 when you were in government, so let's take that—