Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today, thousands of shifts in aged care are going unfilled every week. Vulnerable residents are suffering appalling conditions and aged-care workers are at breaking point. This is the Morrison government's aged-care system at work in Australia today. And now, after nine years of Morrison government neglect, we're resorting to sending the troops into aged care.

The Prime Minister should have listened to the experts years ago. He should have acted on the royal commission's urgent call for more aged-care workers and for proper pay to keep the dedicated aged-care workers we have. But, in the middle of this crisis, instead of delivering a real plan to properly value these workers, the Prime Minister decided to insult them with a last-minute pre-election $400 bonus pay-off. I asked three aged-care workers what they thought about it. Julie told me, 'This bonus is just meant as a bribe.' Jude called it 'a desperate bid for votes'. Elizabeth said, 'It is insulting.' She also said: 'The Prime Minister should spend a week in a facility, first as a resident, then another in our shoes. If he is not heartbroken and exhausted after that, then he has no soul.'

The Prime Minister has had nine years to listen to the experts and to respect aged-care workers like Julie, Elizabeth and Jude by coming up with a real plan—a long-term plan to value our aged-care workers and residents. The Prime Minister has dismally failed aged-care workers, has tragically failed aged-care residents and has failed all Australians who expect their government to pass the most basic of tests: protecting our elderly.