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

I seek leave to move a motion relating to the performance of the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services.

Leave not granted.

Pursuant to contingent notice of motion standing in the name of Senator Wong, I move:

That so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent me from moving a motion to provide for the consideration of a matter, namely a motion to give precedence to a motion relating to the performance of the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services.

Let me be clear from the outset: Senator Richard Colbeck has repeatedly demonstrated, over a prolonged period of time, that he is incapable of fulfilling the task of looking after the interests of older, vulnerable Australians. For this matter alone, this minister should resign. If he does not have the decency to resign, the integrity to resign, the self-awareness to resign, the Prime Minister should sack him. And, if the Prime Minister will not sack this minister, then he confirms he does not have the character to lead this nation.

Our aged-care sector is in an absolute crisis. It's the third year of this pandemic. There were almost 12,000 aged-care residents and workers infected with COVID in more than 1,100 facilities as of Friday. There have been over 600 deaths amongst aged-care residents this year. Tens of thousands of aged-care residents are still waiting for a booster dose. Aged-care facilities have been left without rapid antigen tests and PPE. Aged-care residents have been left without food, water and medical care because the government, in a third year of a pandemic, after last year's diabolical handling of COVID in aged care, failed to learn and failed to plan. This government always acts too little too late and only acts when there's an absolute crisis on its hands. We have had hundreds of Australians in aged care die of COVID. How many deaths would have been preventable if only this aged-care minister had acted?

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, we know that the Morrison-Joyce government ignored aged care. It's all there in one word: neglect. That is not my word. That is the word chosen by the royal commission into aged care to title their interim report: Neglect. This is a government that neglected older citizens in aged care before the pandemic, neglected them in the pandemic and continues to neglect them to this day. We had a clarion call from the former Liberal Premier of New South Wales, Mike Baird, who is now CEO of HammondCare, begging this government to send in the Australian Defence Force 26 days ago. The Prime Minister rejected it. This minister rejected it. This minister said the sector was performing exceptionally well. Those were his words. And he felt so relaxed and comfortable about the aged-care sector that he toddled off to the cricket for three days.

Well, he probably did get booed, Senator Bilyk; you make an excellent point. He got booed at the cricket and he should get booted out of his job. It is an absolute disgrace. It is an utter disaster. Disease is running rampant through under-resourced facilities. There are too few staff to care for those living there. Our greatest generation has been left unwashed and without food. Have you no shame? Have you no responsibility? Have you no care? What happened to ministerial responsibility under this government? Where has it gone? Was it ever there? If Richard Colbeck can have job security under this government, it is absolutely clear that there is almost nothing you can't fail at and still be confident of retaining your job under Mr Morrison, who takes no responsibility, who tried to blame the states and other people for the outbreaks of COVID in aged care. He was warned, by the way, on rapid antigen tests. So many people warned him. Katie Allen warned him. The call was coming from inside the House, by the way. The business community warned him. The Transport Workers Union warned him. He was warned that we would need rapid antigen tests and just like his 'It's not a race' approach to vaccines, it was not a race to get those rapid antigen tests—failing older Australians and leaving them behind. To those people who say, 'What would it do to change the minister?': it would send a clear message that this government gives a brass razoo about older people in aged care! Let somebody else—anybody else!—have responsibility for this portfolio, because surely nobody could do as bad a job as the incompetent aged-care minister in the absolute crisis—the C-word he dares not utter—in aged care. The Prime Minister has acknowledged there is a crisis. The Prime Minister backflipped and sent in the ADF. The next thing the Prime Minister needs to do is sack the minister for aged care.

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

Senator Keneally, I just remind you to use the correct titles when referring to those in the other place and to senators.

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

Well, we have yet another example that it's all politics and zero policy from those opposite. It's all personality attacks and little focusing on the substance of issues that need to be addressed. When you listen to those opposite, you'd be forgiven for thinking there is some sort of alternative universe Australia could operate in—an alternative universe in which COVID can be locked in a box and somehow kept away, an alternative universe in which omicron is not the significant global game changer it is. But that's not true. That is not the reality of the world we face. We face a global pandemic, a highly infectious global pandemic—a global pandemic which has produced new variants that are more infectious and more transmissible and that, through that, have created new challenges. Those variants have, however, become less lethal, thankfully, and less likely to lead to severe hospitalisation and severe health outcomes. We can be grateful for that. The reality is COVID is spreading throughout the world. Omicron has seen a huge surge in case load right throughout the world, and no country has demonstrated that, when you have omicron COVID spreading throughout your community, you're somehow going to be able to completely keep it out of different sectors of your community, such as the aged-care sector.

Rather than denigrate the aged-care sector and aged-care workers, our government thanks them; I want to, and I know Minister Colbeck does. Does this motion that Senator Keneally has moved today thank aged-care workers anywhere in it? No, it doesn't. Does this motion thank aged-care operators anywhere in it? No, it doesn't. Does it acknowledge the circumstances? No. It's just a political diatribe we're seeing here, typical of the Labor Party. If there were a silver bullet to address the challenges in aged care, in dealing with omicron COVID-19, not only would we have sought to deliver that as a government; it might have provided a policy idea for those opposite, because they've shown no policy idea in the aged-care sector today—not a single policy idea from those opposite.

Our government has ensured 100 per cent of residential aged-care facilities have been visited by in-reach clinics to deliver booster doses. We have provided surge workforce capacity. More than 80,000 shifts have been filled by surge workforce, including nurses, GPs, care workers, allied health workers and executive ancillary staff. There is the private health agreement in place to utilise private hospital staff, with furloughing changes made to minimise the loss of staff due to requirements to isolate. In terms of PPE, we have seen more than 42 million masks, more than 15 million gowns, more than 43 million gloves, more than 12 million goggles and nearly 11 million rapid antigen tests delivered throughout the aged-care sector. We have made sure 50,000 treatments have been sent out to aged-care facilities across the country, ensuring that we prioritise those facing outbreak.

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

When are they getting their boosters?

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

Senator Keneally goes on: 'When are they getting their boosters?' All facilities have had the opportunity for people to have a booster, Senator Keneally. It is not the case that everybody will choose to have a booster. Some people won't choose to have a booster, because the reality is that some people in aged care are already in palliative care. Some people in aged care are part of end-of-life management. It is a sad reality, but it's a true reality that those opposite are blinkered to. They ignore the fact that these truths exist and pretend there is some sort of alternative universe. Even when we address the broader questions of aged care, this government, under Minister Colbeck and Minister Hunt, has provided an $18 billion response to the royal commission. It's a comprehensive response, dealing with more places in home care, dealing with minimum standards in residential care and lifting those standards in a range of different ways. We have responded comprehensively to the aged-care royal commission report, and our response contrasts with no response from those opposite—no response aside from the type of rubbish that is bowled up today, the type of politicisation that is bowled up today, rather than the acknowledgment of the challenges and the hard work of those who are helping this sector get through some of the most challenging times. (Time expired)

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

Just before I go to Senator Rice, I was reluctant to interrupt the minister mid sentence, but I do remind senators he has the right, as does every senator, to be heard in silence. I would ask you to respect that right.

Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Greens will be supporting this motion today, because the minister for aged services, Minister Colbeck, has failed. He has failed in his most basic of duties as a government minister, and that is to be keeping people safe. We are supporting this motion today because of the 587 people who have died in aged care in just the first five weeks of 2022, on top of all of the people who have died of COVID in aged care throughout 2020 and 2021. The minister has failed. There would have been fewer deaths from COVID of people in aged care if this government had been competent.

They have failed in the vaccine rollout in aged care. They have failed to provide boosters to everyone in aged care who wanted to be boostered. They have failed to provide the PPE that workers and visitors in aged-care homes need. They have failed to provide the rapid antigen tests that are needed. We have a situation where nurses and aged-care workers still have to pay for their own RATs. They have failed to provide the adequate working conditions to support nurses and aged-care workers to continue working in aged care, and they have failed to provide that support such that we know that 20 per cent of nurses have said they want to leave working in aged care in the next year. Frankly, they have done an amazing job over the last years. I do not blame them because of the conditions they're having to be working under because of the actions of this government. This minister has failed to do all of that. But, of course, he didn't fail to get to the cricket. Apparently that was a priority! And never mind that he earnt more in that day he went to the cricket than the aged-care bonus they have promised workers.

For the Greens I want to say, particularly to the families who are mourning and grieving for the people they've lost: we share your grief. And to the residents who are tired and frustrated and anxious and locked down in aged-care homes: we hear your frustration. To the aged-care workers, who are doing ceaseless hours, waiting desperately for the support and recognition you deserve: we hear your anger. The minister may think that it's acceptable to go to the cricket while people die; we do not.

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

GALLAGHER (—) (): I will, of course, be supporting the motion moved by Senator Keneally today. To start at the very top: there is no fundamentally greater responsibility for any government than to keep its citizens safe. It's there to protect every Australian. What we have at the moment is a catastrophic failure of keeping elderly Australians safe. This minister and this government have been unable to do that. There is no greater example of the shambles that is this government—their disunity and their infighting and the distractions, taking away from actually dealing with the issues that everyday Australians face—than the crisis in aged care, the crisis in aged care that the minister for aged-care services refuses to acknowledge. There is a crisis. You cannot fix a situation if you don't acknowledge the crisis that is there right now. Everyone is saying it's a crisis. The workers in the sector, the families who have loved ones and individual residents are saying they've never seen the quality of care so poor as what they are experiencing right now. More than half of aged-care facilities have outbreaks, affecting thousands of staff and thousands of residents. There have been 587 deaths since January—587 deaths in the last 39 days—and the defence of that by this minister and Minister Hunt is, firstly, 'Oh well, you're old, so you're going to die anyway.' The second defence one is: 'Oh well, there's a lot of COVID out there. Therefore, sorry, aged care: you're just going to get it. And unfortunately, because you're old, it's going to be more severe for you.'

We have had the benefit of seeing what has happened in the Northern Hemisphere for two seasons now. And we saw what happened in Victoria. We understood the need to get vaccinated and to get boostered, and to keep those facilities safe with PPE, testing and a workforce. Yet here we are, with more widespread community transmission, and what do we see? We see failures of PPE, failures of workforce, failures of testing, and failures for people living in those facilities. They're isolated, dislocated, and in their dying moments are hoisted out of the facility and into hospital. And this minister went to the cricket.

I am sorry, Minister, if you think I'm misrepresenting this, but you told me you didn't want resources diverted away from dealing with what was happening in aged care. That's what you told me. I took that at face value. I didn't hold a hearing without your attendance, and you popped up at the cricket. That is exactly what happened. You said you were too busy dealing with the crisis and that you couldn't come. When you go outside and talk to people who are witnessing what's happening in aged care—and they talk to me about that—they don't think it passes the pub test. So don't try to rewrite it: you made the decision to go to the cricket when aged care was in crisis.

This minister, whom we are holding to account today, is not a new minister. This minister took on his first portfolio responsibilities in 2004. He has been minister for aged-care services for the last 2½ years—it's not like he is learning the job. We've had report after report. We've had an interim report from the royal commission entitled Neglect. Someone has to take responsibility for this failure. This government won't take responsibility. The Senate must stand up and speak on behalf of all of the people in aged care and the loved ones who are contacting my office, incredibly upset that they weren't able to be with their loved ones when they were passing away. They were locked out, hearing their loved one on the phone telling them they hadn't been showered or eaten any food. That's the anger out there about aged care. We are not playing politics with this. These are older Australians in their most vulnerable moments, and this government pretends it has done everything it can, saying, 'It's just a pandemic,' and, 'Then Omicron came.' Well, it's not good enough. That's why this minister should resign, and the Prime Minister should sack him if he doesn't. (Time expired)

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What will this achieve? Think about what's happening in my state of Queensland. Forced vaccinations by the federal government have driven aged-care workers into resignation. They've abandoned their jobs—after being heroes for 18 months. Staff are crying because they don't want to leave residents in aged-care facilities in the lurch but they also don't want to have that mandated injection. Look at what else is happening in Queensland. Forced vaccinations in health care are destroying our hospital system. We have a so-called pandemic—there's no pandemic of deaths, but we apparently have a threat—and the response from the state government is to destroy its own health system. A Labor state government is destroying health care. Nurses are resigning. Nurses are being left out because they don't want to get injected. At the same time, we are told we are going to face an imminent hospital crisis. This doesn't make sense, whether it's the Liberal Party, the National Party or the Labor Party.

In Queensland, at a time when there's increasing load on the police to enforce capricious lockdowns and other restrictions and we're taking police off duty to do those jobs, we're standing aside police officers because they won't get injected. We're threatening people such as our emergency services workers, staff in aged care, teachers, nurses, doctors, police, NDIS workers and firies. We're threatening them. We're sacking them so they can't feed their kids because we're going against a 3,000-year-old principle of doctor-patient confidentiality, privacy and bodily autotomy.

So it doesn't matter whether we look at this mob or this mob. They're both reckless and dishonest. So I ask them again: what will this achieve? The Labor Party is full of talk but no action. They've got two or three months until an election. Where is their plan? Instead of suspending the standing orders today, let's have their plan and put it to the people of Australia. Let's see them decide at the next election who is competent to manage this country. At the moment, neither of them are. That's why we keep saying to people, 'Put the majors last.' In 70 years, they have destroyed this country—absolutely destroyed it—by giving in to the United Nations, the World Economic Forum and now this rubbish. We will not be supporting the suspension of standing orders. There's an election. Let the people right across this country decide.

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

It is really disappointing that the Labor Party are using this opportunity to play politics with the pandemic, rather than being constructive in actually dealing with it. They talk about the royal commission. It's nearly a year since the royal commission brought down its final report,Respect, care and dignity. Yet what is the plan from the Labor Party to deal with aged care after the royal commission report? It is a comprehensive report. We have not only responded to every recommendation but put over $18 billion on the table for the reform of the sector. But their response is, 'We'll spend more than the other mob.' That's it. That's all we get from Labor. They play their dirty, personal, nasty politics. That's what they do. That's what their whole plan is. We saw that before Christmas. That's what they do.

This is an extraordinarily difficult circumstance. It's not just a pandemic; this is a global pandemic. We have a deadly virus. People will contract it throughout the community and, tragically, some of them will die. We work, from the Prime Minister down, within this government every day in support of all Australians with respect to the pandemic. We took action early and closed the borders. We put the private hospital agreement in place to support the state health systems when they needed it, and they did need it during January of this year through the omicron outbreak. That private hospital agreement has also provided support for residents in aged care in the context of surge workforce and during 2020, in particular, beds for residents who needed them.

We vaccinated the aged-care population in 2021. We commenced the vaccination booster program for aged-care residents on 8 November last year. On 12 December, or thereabouts, we got advice to accelerate the program. On Christmas Eve, we got advice to accelerate it even further. The period between vaccination and booster was shortened. All through early January this year, we set out to bring forward the boosters for every facility in the country, and now every facility has received boosters, and we've started going around again. We've done over 130 facilities for a second time, and, as of last night, 77.4 per cent of those residents eligible for a booster have taken up that opportunity.

We continue to work in the interests of residents. We've provided vaccines. We've provided PPE throughout the program. Have there been some problems along the way? Yes, there have been. Of course there have been. We had supply chain problems earlier this year, which is what we were working out when the Senate and Senator Gallagher wanted us to be there on that morning when the hearings were supposed to be held. That morning, not while I was at the cricket, we were working on bringing the vaccines forward and we were working on ensuring that the rapid antigen tests and the PPE required were getting to aged-care facilities. Have there been some issues there? Yes. So we continue to do that.

The Labor Party can play their dirty, nasty personal politics, and we know that's their campaign strategy, but they have no plan. Why would you trust the mob that couldn't safely insulate your ceiling to run the response to a pandemic? Why would you trust them to do that? They could not build a school hall. How can they manage the recovery from a pandemic? How can they do that? We, from the Prime Minister down, have applied our attention to supporting Australians through the pandemic. We will continue to do that.

Tragically, some Australians are going to catch the virus, and, absolutely tragically, we all know the impact of a personal loss. We all feel that. We've all felt that loss. We extend our condolences to all those who have suffered that loss, but our focus will be on managing the pandemic, while the opposition play politics with the pandemic.

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As other speakers from Labor have said today, older Australians deserve our respect, our support and our love. Instead, from this minister and this government they get neglect, they get cuts and they get blame-shifting and excuses. Instead of our respect and our support, they have a minister who presides over a rolling crisis, a crisis that has existed since he took on the role and that has only got worse as we have faced COVID-19. Instead of our support and our respect, older Australians, their families and the aged-care workforce get a minister who sees aged care as a part-time job, something he fits around his trips to the cricket.

We have known about the horror stories in aged care for years. There was a royal commission into it which exposed the neglect, which exposed the elderly Australians sitting with open wounds, unable to get the care that they need because of staffing shortages, because of underpayment of aged-care workers, because of underresourcing of the sector. We have known about this for years, and yet we continue to read about it, to hear about it, to watch it, to see it with our own eyes, in our own families, everywhere around the country. Rather than knuckling down and actually getting these problems fixed, getting the workers paid what is needed to attract and keep people in the workforce, making sure that providers use the funding they get transparently so that funds are used to support the elderly Australians in aged-care facilities, we have a minister who decides his priority is going to see a cricket match for three days. It's not as if time couldn't have been spent in those three days continuing to fix the problems in the aged-care facilities. There's no shortage of problems. There's no shortage of recommendations about what needs to be done. Instead, this minister chose to go to the cricket and let things rip. In just one example that we've turned to today—the Jeta Gardens aged-care facility south of Brisbane—at the time this minister was at the cricket COVID was ripping right through that aged-care facility, and we now see 15 residents dead, as well as dozens more testing positive. This minister must go and he must go today.

Slade Brockman (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time for the debate has now expired. The question is that the motion to suspend standing orders moved by Senator Keneally be agreed to.