Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the hundreds of people in my electorate touched by the failure of the Morrison government to adequately plan and prepare for the coronavirus crisis in residential aged care. That includes 113 cases at the Outlook Gardens aged-care facility in Dandenong North, just some of the thousands of Victorians who have been infected and the hundreds who have died.

Of course, the Prime Minister pretends that this is not his fault—it's not his responsibility, it's someone else's problem. Then he says, in his most earnest tones, 'Some days, of course the virus gets the better of us.' Every day, for five months, the government has failed on aged care. The royal commission's report last year was aptly titled Neglect, but still the government has no plan. No plan! COVID has been around for five or six months now. The national cabinet said that the federal government had responsibility for aged care, but the Prime Minister does not have a plan, as the royal commission heard. 'Just blame the states.' I want to record a couple of numbers. In Victoria today there are 1,568 cases of COVID in aged care. Three of those cases are in state funded and state provided care, and 1,565 of those cases are in federally regulated aged care. It is the federal government's responsibility to respond to this crisis. How long are people in my electorate and the rest of the country going to have to wait for the Prime Minister to take responsibility?

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