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 answers given by Senator Colbeck in response to questions asked by myself, Senator Sheldon and Senator Gallagher about aged care.

There might be some fans in this chamber of that great British comedy Yes Minister. They might remember that episode, 'The Compassionate Society', where Minister Jim Hacker found out that his government had been funding for 15 months a hospital that had admitted no patients. Today in the Australian Senate we had our own version, where the Minister for Aged Care, Richard Colbeck, admitted that his government had been funding, for eight months, a residential aged-care facility that had not admitted one resident. I have to say that the British show was funny. This would be funny if the consequences weren't so tragic. Quite frankly, taxpayers have paid more than half a million dollars for a 40-bed facility where no-one is in any of the 40 beds! That's right: in the middle of a global health pandemic, where we have had 673 people die in residential aged-care facilities, this government decided it's a good use of taxpayer funds to spend half a million dollars on a residential age-care facility that has no residents.

Jim Hacker, that minister of Yes Minister was a fictional, a fiction character—

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's fictional.

Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know, Senator Duniam; I'm so excited by this reference to Yes Minister, which you are too young to remember!

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Correct!

Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You're too young, Senator Duniam, but I'm sure that Senator Abetz remembers it! I remember it. Senator Stoker probably remembers it. Here's the thing: Jim Hacker was a famous fictional character. What do we have? We have the all-too-real Senator Richard Colbeck. Jim Hacker: he was bumbling, he was accident prone and he occasionally got it right, but he was an object of derision. He made a mockery of being a minister, but he was fiction. Richard Colbeck is all too real. What is also all too real is this government's neglect of residential aged care. Minister Richard Colbeck made a mockery of being a minister for aged care today in question time when he was confronted with the evidence. For example, under Minister Richard Colbeck's 'care'—I use that word advisedly—of the aged-care sector, we have had shocking stories of ants crawling from wounds, residents left in dirty nappies and providers begging for more staff. We have heard that there are 100 reports of assault and sexual assault every week, more than 1,000 assaults go unreported every week and more than 2,000 complaints were recorded in just three months. What has this minister done? Has he apologised? Has he taken responsibility? Has he resigned? No. He has done what this government always does: found someone else to blame, left Australians behind, taken no responsibility.

This government are so good on the announcement. They're always there for the announcement and the photo op but never there for the follow-through. Back in March, the Prime Minister stood up and waved around in the courtyard what he said was a plan, a plan for residential aged care. He said that the federal government would be responsible for residential aged care during the COVID pandemic. Those were his words, not mine. What did the royal commission into aged care say last week? It said there was not a COVID-19 plan devoted solely to aged care. This isn't just some claim by political opponents. This isn't just some complaint by family members obviously distressed by the sickness and death of their loved ones. This is the finding of the royal commission appointed by the Prime Minister. What did the Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians do in the chamber today? He rubbished the royal commission. He disregarded and rejected their findings. That is what the Morrison government always does, though. It finds someone else to blame and leaves people behind. It's always there for the announcement, never there for the follow-through.

We have 673 older Australians dead. Today in question time the minister said that the Australian Labor Party in asking these questions was just pandering to sectoral interests. I'll tell you what, older Australians are the sectoral interest I am happy to be associated with. The minister for the aged should look after them too. (Time expired)

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We know that the Australian Labor Party's ongoing attacks on Minister Colbeck are designed for one purpose and one purpose only—that is, to distract attention from the deaths and disaster in aged care in one state, Victoria. If Senator Colbeck is to be held responsible for aged care Australia-wide, why is it that we have only had these COVID outbreaks in the state of Victoria? Could it be because of Premier Daniel Andrews and his negligence and the way that he and his government—and they can't remember who—employed these contractors and did not keep the Victorian community safe? If Minister Colbeck is to be held responsible, why didn't he muck it up in my home state of Tasmania, or New South Wales, or Queensland, or the Northern Territory, or Western Australia or South Australia? Why is it that there is only one pocket that the Australian Labor Party continually seeks to refer us to, which happens to be in the state of Victoria? We know why the outbreak has occurred in the state of Victoria. It is because of the incompetence of the state Labor government in Victoria.

So let's not have any of this nonsense that, somehow, Minister Colbeck ought to be held responsible in circumstances where every Australian knows that the tragic consequences of Premier Andrews have led to the statistics that the Australian Labor Party seeks to enjoy crowing about, very distastefully. But in circumstances when you look at the numbers, I simply ask: what are the numbers emanating from the state of Victoria, and why is it that Senator Colbeck should somehow be held responsible for Victoria? I think we all know what happened in Victoria and why it happened. It would be good and decent of the Australian Labor Party in this place, rather than trying to do Premier Andrews's dirty work, to accept the responsibility that it was state Labor's fault in Victoria.

In relation to the misquoting of the royal commission, let's be exceptionally clear. Labor purposefully, I would submit, sought to say to the Senate that somehow the government's behaviour was deplorable. The royal commission never said the government was deplorable. In fact, the only time the royal commission used the word 'deplorable' in their special COVID-19 report was on page 25, when they were referring to an alleged practice, not of the minister, but of a provider. Allow me to quote the full paragraph:

Insufficient supplies of PPE and infection control training for the aged care workforce were the subject of evidence in the form of union surveys and accounts. We heard of workers being told they could only use one glove rather than two, and a guideline at a residential aged care facility that only permitted two masks per shift. This is deplorable.

Clearly not a reference to the minister. Clearly not a reference to the government. Clearly a reference to a provider. Yet the Australian Labor Party come into this question time to so egregiously misrepresent that which the royal commission has provided to the public—might I add, a royal commission deliberately set up by this government because of its concern for aged-care residents, because of some of the stories emanating from the aged-care sector.

As a government wanting to get things right, having established the royal commission, we are adopting and implementing their recommendations. So what does Labor do? They come in here and misquote the royal commission and then most egregiously—and I don't know why—seek to defend Premier Daniel Andrews in Victoria for his neglect. I just hope that the newly implemented industrial manslaughter charges will apply to the Victorian Labor government. (Time expired)

Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers by Senator Colbeck. As I go to those answers, I'll address some of the matters that were raised. Quite clearly the government learnt nothing from Newmarch House and the overseas experience of what was happening in aged care. They learnt nothing from the deaths that were occurring right around the world and were on the front page of every newspaper before this crisis got hold to any degree in our aged-care system.

There's the consistent position from the royal commission, as the counsel assisting the commission, Peter Rozen, pointed out, and it is that there was a very clear degree of hubris and self-congratulation by the government. They failed to turn around and listen to what had happened. They failed to act. They failed to take responsibility. Even now they won't take responsibility for a sector they are responsible for funding, oversighting and implementing arrangements for. They still fail that test after these many months.

Let's look at this a bit closer. We're starting to get to know how the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, operates. We know he likes a flashy announcement. Of course we also know there's never follow-up. He likes to not show up when responsibility has to be taken. He famously excused himself from responsibility for the safety of Australian people during the bushfire crisis—remember that? He took himself secretly off to Hawaii and then, in his own defence, said, 'They know I don't hold a hose, mate.' What a great defence! Then he wouldn't take responsibility for the Ruby Princess cruise ship debacle. We now know that in March, three days after he said that cruise ships would not be admitted to enter Australia except under the 'bespoke arrangements under the Australian Border Force', hundreds of infected passengers flew all over Australia, taking COVID with them, and more than 20 people died, even after airlines' pleas for passengers to be identified fell on deaf ears.

Now the Prime Minister would like to deflect responsibility for the aged-care crisis in Australia, when aged care has always been and will continue to be a Commonwealth responsibility. The special Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety report on COVID-19 was released last week, with the failure of this government to take responsibility for aged care laid bare. There can be no excuse, because we all knew what had happened to aged-care facilities in other countries and to Newmarch House. As I said, the government failed to protect the most vulnerable in our community and they continue to fail. They have no specific plan to protect people in aged care. We now face a national tragedy at their hands, at their feet, but it's our loved ones who are paying the price. It's our families and communities paying that price. It's the workers in those industries paying the price, not the minister and not the Prime Minister. Thousands of family members have been forced to say goodbye to parents, grandparents, loved ones, uncles and aunts without being able to hold their hand.

The royal commissioners, it should be noted, cannot so easily be sidelined by the Prime Minister or by his minister, since he chose those commissioners. The royal commissioners have slapped down the claim by the minister that there was a plan for aged care. They said:

… there is a clear need for a defined, consolidated, national aged care COVID-19 plan.

It's clear that, at the peak of the pandemic, the aged-care regulator was missing in action and provided no written guidance to the aged-care sector in the period between 20 June and 3 August. There it is in black and white.

My message to this government is this: implement the six recommendations before the pandemic hits even worse. Implement arrangements that will improve conditions for working people, and make sure not that one in three are trained but that all are trained. (Time expired)

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

While I always enjoy Senator Sheldon's contributions, I'm not super clear what that contribution was about. It veered from talking about aged care to veering in another moment to talking about something entirely different. I'm going to focus on the aged-care point because I think that's what he's getting at. I have to say, amid all the guff, it's pretty hard to make sense of it. The truths are what nobody wants to talk about in the field of aged care. They are uncomfortable truths. It might sound easy for someone of my age to say, but I will quote someone very wise, and that's my grandmother. She always says, 'Getting older ain't easy,' and, 'Getting older ain't for sissies.' She's got a sense of humour, my grandmother, but it points out something very real about this time in life. Aged care is deeply challenging. Nobody really wants to be in aged care. Everybody would rather be living independently and healthily without the circumstances that force them to come to require aged care. That puts to the front of one's mind the raw realities. It's very confronting to enter the place where you know you are opening the book on the last chapter of your life.

And so, to make life as good as we can for older Australians for as long as we can, this government has delivered record investment right across the aged-care system over the forward estimates, not just in residential age care but also in assistance to help our older Australians live independently in their own homes for longer with the little bits of help they need to be able to do so for as long as possible. In fact, new home-care packages under this government have increased from 60,308 under Labor in 2012-13 through to 164,135 in the coming financial year. That's an increase of over 170 per cent. Over the same period, funding for them will increase by 258 per cent due to the growth in the number of people who are seeking higher levels of care from home—which, again, highlights that reality: people want to be able to stay in their homes for as long as they possibly can.

It's also worth noting that for all the gloating, for all the confected emotion we see on that side of the chamber, at the last election Labor offered no additional funding in their costings. Not a single cent. Nothing! Not a penny! Not even mentioned. Not a single dollar more for home-care places, not a single dollar more for aged-care quality, not a single dollar more for investing in the quality of the aged-care workforce and not a single dollar more for residential aged care. So I am not inclined to listen to the confected outrage of those opposite when they had no plan to improve this sector, they had no vision for investing more in older Australians and they had no interest in the welfare of those in that difficult last chapter of their lives.

The fact that this is a difficult chapter of life doesn't mean we don't, as a society, continue to aim high. It's vital we have measures in place that make this tough chapter as positive and as healthy as it can possibly be. That's why the Morrison government, under this minister, has provided PPE from the national stockpile for aged-care workers. That's why, under this minister, the Morrison government has put in place infection-control training, PPE measures and infection-control protocols that are designed to keep this workforce and our older Australians safe. As at 30 September of this year, 1,244,709 aged-care workers had completed basic training. (Time expired)

Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's got to be pretty tough to come in here at the moment as a senator on the other side and stand up to defend what's happening in aged care. It's got to be pretty tough. You know it's pretty tough when colleagues like Senator Stoker have to refer to in-home-care packages as the shining beacon of what the government's done, because we know that rollout has not gone smoothly either and has left a lot wanting. What we've seen in Victoria in aged care over the past few months is nothing short of a national tragedy, and it is nothing short of a disaster for those Australians in residential aged care and for the families who have had to watch what they go through in residential aged care during this pandemic.

I don't think there's a single person in this room who expected the government, the minister or the Prime Minister to predict the global pandemic, but when the pandemic was upon us, when we started seeing the lessons from overseas and when we started seeing the lessons in Australia—of Newmarch House, of what was happening in New South Wales—at that point we did expect them to come up with a plan. At that point we did expect them to go through a process of lessons learned, to look around at what was happening globally and what was happening in Australia, to develop a plan and to do what they had to do to keep Australians safe.

No-one expected the government to predict the unpredictable, but we did expect a degree of ministerial responsibility for the crisis which is happening in aged care, aged care being a federal government responsibility. We expected the Prime Minister to take responsibility for it. We expected the aged-care minister to take responsibility for it. We expected them to do what was required to keep Australians safe. That is not an unreasonable set of expectations for us as the opposition and certainly not an unreasonable set of expectations for the Australians in aged care and for the families who love them. But the government failed on that. The minister said he has a plan, but, if the royal commission couldn't find it, how can the Australians in aged care expect to find it? How does the sector find it? How do the families who have family members in aged care find it? If the royal commission couldn't find it, where is it? What is it? These families expected more from their federal government. They expected a sector which was resilient, but, most importantly, they expected a sector which would be prepared to respond to the things we knew could come, and we knew they could come because we saw them come in New South Wales and we've seen them come overseas.

This government does not take ministerial responsibility when it comes to the aged-care sector seriously. We saw that last time we were here in Canberra, when the minister turned his back on this chamber as we were seeking an explanation about what was happening. In the chamber, he turned his back and walked out. We saw that in question time today when he waffled in answers to questions from Labor senators—serious questions about what's happening in the aged-care sector in Victoria and his responsibility for it. This is not a minister who takes his responsibilities seriously. This is not a minister who takes his responsibility to this chamber seriously, and we see that time and time again.

All we get from this government are excuses. We've seen today in this debate more excuses that it's not the government's problem; it's someone else's problem. You are the level of government responsible for aged care, so, while it's easier to deflect the blame and harder to stand up and take responsibility, that is what is expected of you. That is what is expected of you by those Australians in aged care in Victoria. And it's not just Victorians. I know people in my home state of South Australia are looking at what's happened in aged care in Victoria and they feel scared too. They feel scared because they don't feel like the government, which is meant to be representing them in Canberra, which is looking after this sector, which is meant to have a plan and has been found wanting, will be there for them if a crisis comes to SA. They are scared, and I don't blame them for being scared. So, Minister, instead of standing here and waffling, or trying to devolve yourself of responsibility or trying to attack Labor senators—because that's really all you can do if you don't want to stand up and take responsibility and ownership of what you've been doing—why don't you think of the Australians out there who feel fear, think about the Australians suffering and actually take your responsibility as a minister seriously.

Question agreed to.