Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I find myself here again under order of the Senate—an order of the Senate that is highly politically motivated in terms of the relentless politicisation of matters in relation to aged care and the relentless politicisation of delicate matters in relation to COVID-19. The approach that is being taken by those opposite seems to put the reality of COVID-19, of the omicron variant and the many challenges and infectiousness that it results in, to one side just in pursuit of political points; in particular, in pursuit of political points against the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services.

I reject the basis upon which this motion has been made and the many accusations that have been made and, indeed, will be made, I'm sure, in the debate that will ensue. I want to state very, very clearly the support for Minister Colbeck and the work that he does—has done, continues to do and will continue to do—across the government. The support, though, is not just for Minister Colbeck, because it is not about him; it's about a team of health experts and aged-care experts across different government agencies that he works closely with. It's about all those different officials and employees across the Australian Public Service who have been working with him, with the government and with Minister Hunt to make sure they do all possible from a Commonwealth level in support of the people who it is really about—that is, aged-care workers, aged-care residents and those people on the front line of aged care in perhaps the most difficult time that aged-care facilities around the world have faced. In terms of modern aged-care facilities, I think we can say with a high degree of confidence that none in any country have faced situations like those which COVID-19 has brought to them in the last couple of years.

I'm sure we will see slurs and attacks made on Minister Colbeck about his attendance at the cricket. I want to make it very clear that Minister Colbeck, as those in this chamber know, isn't just the minister for aged care services; he is also the Minister for Sport, and he's also the senior government senator from Tasmania. All of you know the circumstances in terms of the different responsibilities he has within those different roles he has. However, even with that, I know he continues to give enormous priority and precedence to the work he has to do as the minister for aged care services because of the global challenges and, with how they materialise in Australia, the local challenges that the aged-care sector faces.

On 14 January, when some will allege that Minister Colbeck was not at his job, Minister Colbeck was hard at it in terms of participating in many different aspects of the aged-care response. Those included: the COVID vaccine and response meeting, led by task force commander Lieutenant General John Frewen; a meeting with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner and with the acting secretary of the Department of Health on a range of different aged-care matters, including the status of outbreaks across the aged-care sector at that stage; and a meeting with the Deputy Chief Medical Officer to discuss aged-care advisory group actions and to work through all those different issues. They are just some of the things in relation to the work in the aged-care services portfolio that Minister Colbeck undertook that day, as he does every day in terms of working through these issues, with his engagement with all those senior officials and with the sector in terms of addressing the challenges of COVID-19.

Minister Colbeck has also made himself very available—I'm sure this will come up as well—to the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19, appearing on multiple occasions before that committee—as well as the times he has appeared before Senate estimates committees and the endless questions he continues to face in this chamber about important issues as they relate to aged care. They are important issues. Nobody denies the fact that the challenges in aged care are real; as I said before, they are real not just in Australia but right around the world. Tragically, there is a loss of life around the world and in Australia, and in aged-care facilities in Australia, as a result of COVID. But, of course, in those aged-care facilities across the country there is also a sad and tragic loss of life every day, due to a range of factors in terms of the individuals at end-of-life that workers are caring for and supporting.

The government's response to supporting aged care has been to focus on vaccines where it can. Every single aged-care facility has had the opportunity for its residents to have not just a first dose, not just a second dose, but a booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. As is known, the one area that the government led, in terms of urging for and supporting a mandate in relation to vaccines, was aged care, in working with the states and territories to see them enact those requirements across the board.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic the government, under the leadership of Ministers Colbeck and Hunt, have sought to provide significant support to the aged-care sector—more than $2½ billion worth of investment and support to the aged-care sector, with more than $1½ billion of that $2½ billion of additional support being made available to support the aged-care workforce in particular. We recognise the challenges of the workforce that have been exacerbated by the wide spread of the omicron variant and the associated isolation requirements that have ensued. That has required us to trigger the various availabilities for surge workforce assistance across the country. As at 4 February, more than 80,000 shifts have been filled by workforce surge staff supporting the aged-care sector. As I understand it, there are around 852 current deployments of surge staff and support at active outbreak sites across residential aged-care facilities. A range of different providers are supporting that operation, including the Australian Defence Force, with the capabilities they have to hand.

The type of work they do is supported by the significant volumes of personal protective equipment and other equipment that we've made available to support aged care throughout the pandemic. We've seen tens of millions of masks, gowns, gloves, goggles and face shields, hundreds of thousands of bottles of hand sanitiser and millions of rapid antigen tests dispatched to aged-care facilities to help meet the unique needs and challenges they face. None of these things make it easy in aged-care facilities because COVID-19 cannot be easy in terms of the management of those facilities. Our thoughts go in particular to the workforce, who we've supported not just in providing the surge capacity and additional staff capacity but also through bonus and retention payments that have been made during the course of the pandemic. Four separate workforce bonus payments were made to aged-care workers, recognising the additional stressors that have been placed upon them. These temporary actions we've taken in response to COVID-19 in the aged-care sector are in addition to the fundamental reforms that we are pursuing in the response to the aged-care royal commission that Minister Colbeck, together with Minister Hunt, has been leading.

In last year's budget, and in further midyear budget updates, more than $18 billion has been committed and is being delivered through the aged-care sector to support comprehensive areas of reform recommended by the royal commission. Additional home-care places, additional arrangements in relation to minimum staff and additional safety requirements are all different areas that Minister Colbeck is well versed to speak on and to detail. The government's response has been comprehensive. The government have been clear in what we are doing, how we are going about it and what funds are provided.

The opposition seek to be critics, but they've offered no alternative in relation to the responses to the aged-care sector but for one that I suspect we will see again in this debate as they trot it out as part of their attacks on Minister Colbeck and the government—that is, that they will make a submission for aged-care workers to receive a higher wage outcome from the process before the independent umpire at the Fair Work Commission. The government support the Fair Work Commission process. We support the decisions, whatever they may be, of the independent umpire, and we have provided information to it. Those opposite, though, want to have their cake and eat it too on that debate. They say there should be an increase but they don't have the guts to actually say what it should be. They won't say whether it should be a cent or a dollar or $100 or $1,000. They won't put any figure on it. It is a hollow promise they're making, and of course the reason that they won't put any dollars on it is that they don't want to have to account for it. What trust, what faith can aged-care workers have in relation to those opposite if they run around saying: 'We think there should be an increase; we would make a submission, but we won't actually say what we would put in that submission and we are not going to budget a single cent to actually deliver it'? What confidence can they have that it is nothing other than a cheap political stunt by those opposite to seek to take advantage of a sector that is stressed, that is challenged, that is facing a global challenge and crisis the likes of which they have never confronted before and their counterparts around the world have never confronted before?

In Australia we have managed, notwithstanding the enormous challenges of this, to keep COVID-19 at bay in the main whilst vaccinations were developed and the vaccination program rolled out. During that time we have seen an improvement, in the sense that whilst the omicron variant may be much more infectious it also results in around 70 per cent less severe health outcomes. What we've successfully done as a country through our closed border and through other measures that we, the states and territories, industry and others have achieved is buy time to get the vaccinations developed, initially around the world, and to have a more resilient environment in aged care today.

I have no doubt that we will hear plenty of politicking to come from those opposite, plenty of sniping at Minister Colbeck that will be unfair and personalised and seek to continue to paint a picture of an aged-care sector not supported by the government or the officials hard at work in actually delivering support on the ground. The picture those opposite paint is not an accurate one, and it is certainly not one that actually reflects and understands the complexities in the aged-care sector, the complexities in dealing with COVID-19. It pretends that somehow there are alternate universes in which COVID can be locked in a box and in which omicron is not actually as transmissible as it is. That's just not true. There are real challenges that we all have to deal with. What we have sought to do is provide as much support in a very challenging environment as possible, and I know that Minister Colbeck will continue to do that with the greatest of diligence and effort to the task at hand.