Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I'm actually pleased to receive this question and, in particular, to address the advice of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee. It considered the single-site worker program was considered by the principal medical expert panel of Australia on 9 November and was tabled in the national cabinet on 13 November 2020. If I may, I will turn exactly to the words within the Updated National COVID-19 Aged Care Plan, adopted by the AHPPC and tabled at the national cabinet on single-site workforce arrangements.

Single site workforce arrangements are a useful tool in mitigating the risk of COVID-19 being unintentionally transmitted across aged care facilities.

It is acknowledged that:

• Single site arrangements are complex and should not be required where there is a low risk of COVID-19

• It is important that the sector and government are prepared to implement single site arrangements quickly, where required, and

• The design of single site arrangements needs to consider employment relations and workforce protections, workforce capacity, and coverage in terms of sectors …

That was the nationally agreed aged-care plan that was adopted by AHPPC and tabled. The actions that were taken were precisely in line. The same single-site workforce arrangements were triggered by the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer on Thursday of last week when he declared a Commonwealth hotspot, precisely in line with the agreement across all states and territories.

I would note that the Health Services Union took an aged-care provider to the Fair Work Commission in March last year and was successful in that case against an aged-care provider which had themselves wanted to implement a single-worker policy. So it was not supported by the union. I would also note in relation to that that one of the other things which has been—

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