Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to 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) to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today relating to COVID-19 and aged care.

'Nothing worked well from the outbreak.' 'I thought we were prepared. Nothing prepared us for what was to come.' 'I couldn't believe this was happening in my country.' These are just some of the words from the Commonwealth's review into the Newmarch House COVID-19 outbreak, released today. That outbreak happened in April, some four months ago, and 19 older Australians died. Before that, there were warnings from overseas about the devastating impact of COVID on aged care. The alarm bells were ringing, but the Morrison government was not listening.

Today's report on Newmarch House confirms, as do the answers we heard from Senator Colbeck, that the Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians, Senate Colbeck, and the Morrison government did not have a plan in place to manage the COVID outbreaks in aged care in Australia. As we heard in question time today, 335 aged-care recipients have passed away from COVID-19. There've been 1,761 COVID-19 cases in aged care. Each one of these numbers is a real person. It is somebody's mother or father; it is somebody's grandmother or grandfather; it is somebody's spouse or someone's life partner. These are some of Australia's most precious citizens. These are people who helped build the nation, who fought for it in several wars, who worked and built community, raised families and created jobs, who were part of their church or their local service organisations. And these older Australians are dying at home alone. They're dying in residential aged-care homes alone. They're lucky if they get to hold the hand of a staff member in aged care.

Let's just imagine what kind of death we are talking about, because I sometimes think there is a perception that old people simply pass away, and perhaps that is a perception you could take from the lack of a response and the lack of a plan from the Morrison government. But old people don't just simply die. This is a highly contagious disease that attacked older Australians in residential aged care when there was not a plan in place to manage infection control, when there was not a plan in place to replace workforce when they got sick, when there was not a plan in place for protective equipment. And these older Australians, who are vulnerable to this disease, got sick, and they're dying alone.

Let's understand what kind of death that is. I heard one of the adult children of a woman who died in St Basil's describe on radio that experience—of having to watch his mother's death at a distance, of not being able to hold her hand or touch her. Can you imagine being in the last moments of your life and not being able to touch your children? Can you imagine watching your mother or father die just feet from you—maybe through a window, through a mask—and not being able to hug them in the last moments of their existence? Can you imagine your husband or your wife on their deathbed, and you can't even hold their hand in comfort? That's what kind of death this is.

We should not be surprised that our aged-care homes were unable to cope with this, because, if you look at the interim report handed down by the royal commission into aged care, that report called it 'neglect'. It's not called 'compassionate care', it's not called 'preparedness', it's not called 'living with dignity in your old age'; it is called 'neglect'. It talks about our senior citizens—our mums and dads, our grandparents and aunts and uncles—being in aged-care homes with open sores and physical abuse and malnourishment. It talks about a lack of infection control, whether we're talking about diarrhoea or COVID-19.

I just want to pay tribute right here to the aged-care frontline workers. I have met many of them. I've met them, and they're in tears, some of them, because they know they don't have the time or the resources or the support to give the care that they know that their residents need. And they're distressed too; they're on the front line of this outbreak.

The fact that we have a minister who hasn't engaged fully enough with this crisis in aged care, from the handing down of a report called Neglect through to last Friday, when he didn't know the answers to basic questions through to question time today—we need a plan and we need it today; we needed it yesterday, we need it tomorrow, we need it right now, to look after our senior citizens in aged care.

Amanda Stoker (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No-one could help but be moved, thinking about how difficult it must be to be someone facing the end of their lives and unable to be with their families, unable to have the comfort and support of the people with whom they have travelled the journey of life. I can speak from experience. Early on during the aged-care impacts of COVID-19 I lost my grandfather, and it was very difficult not to be able to be with him in the last moments of his life. He's a man I loved. He immigrated to this country from Austria. He built a life here. He came with very few skills. He was a person who worked in the textile factories at the time he immigrated, and by the time he finished his career he was a foreman at Kimberly-Clark, making the nappies that I suspect my children wore for the many years they were small. And he was a thoroughly good man. But he died alone.

None of the criticisms that are being levelled by those opposite are in a logical sense truly connected to my experience of loss or to the experience of loss that many other Australians have undergone in recent times, as we have all as a nation had to adapt to the difficulty of the restrictions that come with COVID-19. It's hard even now for people with a loved one in aged care not to be able to give them the usual support and care they ordinarily would give with love as an expression of gratitude for the many gifts that the older person has given throughout the course of their life. It remains difficult, but it's also reflective of the collective sacrifices Australians from all walks of life are making as we attempt to get under control a virus that is ravaging the world. It's ravaging people's health, it's ravaging our economy and it's having knock-on consequences for communities everywhere.

So to acknowledge the hardship that comes from this difficult time is a very different thing to trying to pretend that this is all about the minister's role. The minister has stepped up enormously during a difficult time. There have been fast adaptations of a big industry to hardships that have been quite unprecedented.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Amanda Stoker (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Those opposite, who like to interject, like to make out that they're a bit holier than thou on this stuff. But this isn't just me talking. We can't allow this kind of misinformation to stand. Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Nick Coatsworth is on the record with this. He says that allegations that the government lacked urgency when helping aged-care homes to battle coronavirus are insulting. That's what you're doing: you're insulting the aged-care workers who have tried so hard to adapt to the challenge of this time. Similarly, he has said:

… the first thing to say is that there were many words used in the royal commission witness statements today that perhaps don't reflect the totality of the Government's response, both at federal and state level to preventing deaths in aged care.

Here's the guts of it:

This is a virus that disproportionately affects the aged in our community. That is not a statement of futility, it is a statement of fact.

That's a direct quote from him.

You can cast arrows at me all you like, but that is a statement of fact from a man of science who understands how viruses like this work. It is very easy to throw political arrows over this side and try and claim a scalp or two, or try and string up a minister to blame, but ultimately this is the nature of the virus. We are doing everything that can possibly be done to get it under control so that people in our community, people like my family, don't have to experience the death of a loved one alone.

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are four failed ministers in this third-term Liberal government. The first appointment was the former senator Mitch Fifield, who had no interest at all in aged care. Then we had Sussan Ley, who is back in the ministry, who had no interest in aged care. Then we had Minister Ken Wyatt, who had no capacity to deliver anything in terms of reform of the aged-care sector. Now we have Senator Colbeck—what an embarrassment for this government. Aged care was always going to be in trouble when this virus hit this country. There is nothing new there, because this government has not had a minister that was interested enough to make sure there were plans in place. This didn't suddenly hit Australia before anywhere else. This pandemic was known. We already knew because we'd had 14 reports into the aged-care sector during the terms of this government, telling each and every one of them the problems that we had through lack of resources, lack of training, lack of staff and lack of money. When he was Treasurer, this Prime Minister ripped $1 billion out of the aged-care sector. He used the aged-care sector as an ATM. No wonder the sector couldn't cope when COVID-19 hit. There are fantastic staff and good providers in this sector, and I take my hat off to them each and every day when they are doing the best that they can.

The Prime Minister made a commitment after the last election that he was going to make aged care a priority. He is accountable and he must be held responsible for the issues and the crisis in the aged-care sector now. But we know the Prime Minister doesn't want any accountability. He certainly doesn't want any transparency. He is standing by his man. This minister has failed older Australians miserably. Even today in the chamber he still couldn't get the figure right. He still couldn't get the figure correct. He said 385 older Australians had died. The figure is 335. We understand that he is a minister under pressure. But older Australians and their families deserve so much more.

When COVID-19 hit our shores we knew that older Australians would be some of the most vulnerable in the community to be susceptible to this virus. The aged-care sector was already in crisis. This is a government who called a royal commission into its own failings. They already knew that the sector was in crisis and they did nothing about it. To have a junior minister being responsible for the aged-care sector is unacceptable.

When we were last in government—and bearing in mind this is the third term of this government—we held aged care in the priority that it should be by having a cabinet minister. We have been calling on each and every Liberal government since then to elevate aged care into the cabinet but they have failed to do that. What they have done is used it as a cash cow and ripped $1 billion out—by the Prime Minister when he held the portfolio of Treasury. We know they have been underfunding it. We know that there have been in excess of 14 reports since they have come to government and each and every one of those has given us the warnings. There are red lights flashing all the time. There are not enough staff and not enough resources. Money is being ripped out.

It needs to be regulated. We need to have national training. We need to ensure that there is uniformity across this country. We have been told time and time again. They must have realised there were some issues when they called the royal commission. We have had the interim report and what have we seen? No real action from the government. What they want to do is use that royal commission as an excuse. The Australian people are not going to accept it. One of the good things about calling this royal commission was it got the media and the Australian people interested. Now is the time for the Prime Minister to step up and act. (Time expired)

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know one of those 335 who have now passed away in residential aged-care facilities. My great-auntie Edie passed away in New South Wales. She did not deserve to go the way she did, but she did, like another 334. My thoughts and prayers are with every single family who has lost someone in these circumstances, whether in an aged-care facility or otherwise.

I would first like to compliment the minister on facing the dogged questioning from the opposition over the course of question time. Every single opposition question was put to the minister during the course of question time and he faithfully gave answers to each and every question. He started his answer to the first question by noting his deep regret that last Friday he was not able to provide the figures which had been asked for. I have no doubt, knowing the minister as I do, that that apology was heartfelt, sincere and genuine, and it was given with great dignity.

Those listening to this debate would be excused for thinking that all of the responsibility with respect to aged care falls at the minister's feet. The answer is very, very different. I refer to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreaks in Residential Care national guidelines which were adopted under the auspices of the Communicable Diseases Network Australia. That document sets out the actual responsibilities for each of the stakeholders in aged care. I just want to give a summary of those responsibilities, because if you were listening to this debate you would think the sole person responsible is Mr Colbeck, and that is simply untrue.

Firstly, under the heading 'Residential Care Facilities', the guidelines state:

The primary responsibility of managing COVID-19 outbreaks lies with the RCF—

the residential care facilities—

in their responsibility for resident care and infection control. All RCF should have access to infection control expertise, whether in-house or not, and outbreak management plans in place.

I repeat those words: the primary responsibility of managing COVID-19 outbreaks lies with the residential care facilities. These are guidelines that were accepted by the entire industry. These are the industry's guidelines. The primary responsibility lies with the residential care facilities.

Then, next, under the heading 'The State/Territory Department of Health', the guidelines state:

State/territory public health section in the Departments of Health will act in an advisory role to assist RCF to detect, characterise and manage COVID-19 outbreaks. This includes:

And so it goes on. Those were the responsibilities of the state and territory departments of health.

I come to the Australian Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. It's responsibility is as the national regulator of aged-care services. Then there's the Australian government's Department of Health. The guidelines state:

For Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACF) that receive funding from the Commonwealth, the Commonwealth will work collaboratively with the overall management of the response to support the viability and capacity of the RACF to access services …

The Commonwealth government, under the leadership of the minister, Minister Colbeck, has been doing exactly that. It has provided an additional $1 billion in funding. Just as recently as last Friday it provided an additional $171 million.

Those are the roles and responsibilities of each of the players and stakeholders in aged-care facilities. That was the observation also in the independent review that was released today, the final report, dated 20 August 2020, into the Newmarch House COVID-19 outbreak. That responsibility of the residential care facilities was front and centre in that report. Appendix I contained a summary of key learnings numbered 1 through to 20. Those are 20 key learnings covering a diverse range of subjects. It is simply disingenuous and quite reprehensible in some respects, in the circumstances, to try to apportion all the blame to Minister Colbeck. (Time expired)

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

This government has left vulnerable older Australians at risk and exposed to a deadly virus. But first, because we are talking about real people here, not numbers in daily reports, let me acknowledge the sad news that we're hearing out of Victoria about the significant number of deaths in aged-care facilities. Our thoughts must be with every single person who has lost a loved one during this pandemic, particularly those families who have loved ones in aged-care facilities, some who are deeply worried and not getting news in a timely manner the way that they should. And we know that it's been an incredibly difficult few weeks for some of those families and their loved ones in some of these aged-care facilities, particularly in Victoria. These are some of the most vulnerable Australians, and they deserve a government with a plan to keep them safe.

We know that the warning bells were ringing in March but nobody in the government was listening. We know that 335 residents have passed away and there are more than 1,300 active cases, and yet the minister and the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, continue—and we heard it again just a moment ago in the contribution from the senator opposite—to pass the buck and the blame. It has been a disgraceful exercise to witness.

The Morrison government is in charge of aged care. The Morrison government regulates aged care. It funds aged care. The Morrison government has the legislation that determines the quality of aged care that older Australians get. If things are not working, if systems are not working, the Morrison government is ultimately responsible for this. The buck stops with Scott Morrison and with this minister, this man who does not seem to have any kind of real grasp of what his job actually is.

We saw just last Friday that Minister Colbeck couldn't even answer basic questions when questioned at the Select Committee on COVID-19 inquiry into the Australian government's response to the pandemic. The Australian public was genuinely stunned that he was not across the most basic and tragic facts. And his performance in this place today has done absolutely nothing to give Australians confidence that he knows what his job is or that he has the capacity to lead and to assert the right that these Australians have to quality care, to protection from infection from a deadly pandemic, to communication with their families and loved ones, and to be cared for by a workforce that is adequately trained, has secure work, is adequately paid and goes to work each day in conditions that are safe.

It's time for Scott Morrison and his Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians to be honest. They knew aged-care facilities would struggle to find staff during a coronavirus outbreak, but they did nothing. They knew about the potential for a withdrawal of staff at an aged-care home because of coronavirus, but they did not do enough to prepare for this. Scott Morrison said on 29 July that the events that have tragically occurred in Victorian aged-care homes could not have been anticipated or foreshadowed, but his government was repeatedly warned that they could happen. It happened at Earle Haven over a year ago. It happened at Dorothy Henderson Lodge and Newmarch House months ago. We stand in this chamber today with still no answer to the question: why did Scott Morrison and his minister not have—

Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Urquhart, I do remind you to refer to those in the other place by their correct titles.

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

Apologies. Why did the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, and this minister not have a proper plan to deal with the loss of workforce in aged-care homes?

It is also, tragically, clear that the Morrison government's surge workforce has been inadequate to deal with outbreaks of coronavirus. We also found out that the Morrison government has spent just half of the money that it set aside for a surge workforce that was meant to assist aged-care homes impacted by coronavirus. This is completely unacceptable. The minister says that we're still learning and we're in discussions. He seems utterly incapable of the leadership required to acknowledge the damage this government has wrought in our aged-care sector and how a pandemic has served to reveal, deepen and shatter the structural cracks that were already undermining it, yet Mr Morrison says he has full confidence in this incompetent minister. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians (Senator Colbeck) to a question without notice asked by Senator Siewert today relating to COVID-19 and aged care.

We had the minister talking as if, just because other countries had had outbreaks of COVID in residential aged care, it was inevitable that it would happen here. It wasn't inevitable, and it shouldn't have been inevitable that it happen here if we had a system that was set up to actually function properly. The fact is that we have had 35 reports over the last 40 years—nearly one report a year—into the failures in aged care and how it should be fixed. Despite the minister saying, 'The other countries are worse,' the fact is that, according to the royal commission into aged care—the very royal commission that this government called—Australia has one of the highest rates in the world of residential aged-care deaths as a proportion of deaths from COVID-19. That is quite shocking. That is quite shocking to the families that have lost loved ones in residential aged care during this pandemic.

For years and years, people who know what they're talking about have been calling for reform in aged care and, in particular, for significant investment of resources. Today we saw that Professor Pollaers has said that we need an investment of at least $3.5 billion into residential aged care. And what we heard from the minister in answer to my questions was that we've got to wait for the royal commission. The fact is that these things are happening right now. We have insufficient workforce right now. We have insufficient practices right now. We are not seeing clinical care addressed. Just last year I tabled in this place the Community Affairs References Committee report into aged care, which had a particular focus on clinical care and which highlighted the problems with clinical care being provided in residential aged-care facilities. I maintain that, if we had started addressing those clinical care issues, that's one of the things that we wouldn't need to address so much now, because we would have those things in place and could have dealt with infectious disease control.

We are still not providing all workers in residential aged care with, and we are still seeing that not all workers have completed, the most up-to-date infectious disease control. How can this be happening in this country? Why haven't we been investing the money in our workforce that so many reports have so clearly shown that we need to invest? We need to significantly invest in our aged-care workforce so that we're providing the level of care—four hours and 18 minutes per day—that it is recommended that we provide. Why aren't we doing that urgently across this country, so that we don't see the tragedy that has been unfolding in Victoria happen anywhere else?

Heaven forbid there should be an outbreak of COVID somewhere else. Unless we are making sure that every residential aged-care facility has actually been audited, we cannot assure the Australian public that people living in residential aged care are safe. What did the our regulator of aged care, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, do? They sent out a form for self-assessment by these residences, and people out there may now be shocked to learn that most of those residential facilities said, 'Yes, we're prepared.' Those in Victoria said, 'Yes, we are prepared,' and yet look at the tragedy we are seeing unfold in Victoria. It shows very clearly that we need a much more heavy-handed approach—and I hate to say it, but we do—to the regulation of aged care in this country.

We need to beef up our Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. At the moment, they only have an additional 13 staff. That is nowhere near enough to deal with the issues that we need to be dealing with. This country expected that our residential aged-care facilities would keep people's loved ones safe—would keep our older Australians safe—but they have failed enormously. What we are seeing in Victoria could roll out anywhere else in the country unless we step up our workforce in all residential aged-care facilities and we make sure all our workers are supported—that they don't have to go begging for additional support. These things are urgent. They can't wait until the royal commission reports. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.