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

My question is to Senator Colbeck, the Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians. Minister, on Friday the government announced $171 million additional funding for aged care, while experts acknowledge that an additional investment of $3.5 billion is what's actually needed to improve hours of care and workforce conditions and address other aged-care issues. Minister, are you going to invest the $3.5 billion that's recommended to be needed to fix the aged-care sector?

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

Thanks, Senator Siewert, for the question. The $171 million that we announced on Friday was a further contribution towards our response to the COVID-19 pandemic. That's what it was specifically targeted to do; it wasn't designed to fix the aged-care sector. It's a different situation. We are currently in the middle of a royal commission into the aged-care sector, which was given the task of forensically looking at the entire aged-care sector and then coming back to government with recommendations on what we should do to improve the residential aged-care sector in this country—in fact, that includes the home care sector. We are watching that process very closely. Our officials engage with the commission on a regular basis. They continue to issue papers, including one that they issued this morning with respect to quality indicators. We will respond, as I have said and as the Prime Minister has said, to the royal commission when it makes its recommendations. I acknowledge, and the Prime Minister has acknowledged—it's why we called the royal commission—that there are issues with residential aged care and the aged-care sector more broadly in this country. Clearly, there are. That's why we called the royal commission. We look forward to its report when it reports on 26 February next year. The objective that I have, and I know that the Prime Minister has, is for us to make a significant response to that royal commission report in our budget next year. So that's the timeline we have. We acknowledge that additional funding is required for this sector, and we have invested significantly in this sector in the last two budgets, in excess of, say, $3 billion for 50,000 home care places. (Time expired)

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Siewert, a supplementary question?

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

On Friday, at the COVID committee hearing into aged care, you said that no country in the world has avoided COVID-19 outbreaks in aged-care facilities. Does that mean that Australia doesn't have to try harder to prevent further outbreaks? Minister, don't you agree that Australia should be aiming to do better than the UK, Canada and the US, where so many people have died in aged care?

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

Thanks, Senator Siewert, for the supplementary question. What I said was that where there has been significant community transmission there have been COVID-19 outbreaks in residential aged care everywhere in the world. With respect to your comments about a number of other countries, we actually are doing better than all of those—significantly better than all of those. In fact, our circumstance with respect to infections in residential aged care as the number of deaths as a proportion of aged-care places is 35 times better than the UK.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order!

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

In fact, we're doing better than all of those countries. We are one of the best in the world—

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Cormann, on a point of order?

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The point of order is that interjections are always disorderly, but they're particularly disorderly when they're complaining about a minister answering the question that was asked in a way that is directly relevant to the question that was asked.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Interjections are always disorderly. I was calling the chamber to order. I thank you for helping me remind the chamber, Senator Cormann.

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

As I've said a number of times today, every single death in residential aged care is a tragedy. I again offer my condolences to every family who's lost a family member. That's why we have worked since the outset of this pandemic to mitigate the opportunities— (Time expired)

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Siewert, a final supplementary question?

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

In August, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission undertook 74 spot checks in Victoria and 41 spot checks in New South Wales. Minister, will you guarantee that the government will undertake an audit of every aged-care facility in this country to ensure that they are fully prepared and we don't see the same sorts of outbreaks that we have just seen in Victoria?

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

Throughout this pandemic the government has continued to work closely with the residential aged-care sector to provide them with information, with advice and with funding to assist them to mitigate the entry of COVID-19 into residential aged care and to assist them to deal with it if it does. We've done that on a consistent basis, and we will continue to do that. This morning we released the Newmarch report, which I provided directly to every single aged-care provider in the country. We've already implemented a lot of the learnings from Newmarch in our response in Victoria. We continue to do that, and we continue to work with residential aged-care providers across the country, including a decision out of national cabinet last Friday where we will be working, through the quality and safety commission, with states to visit every provider, commencing in Tasmania and Queensland, to ensure that their systems are up to speed. And, if we find an opportunity for improvement, we'll push for that. (Time expired)