Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] I'm really pleased to make a contribution today from my electorate in Clayton. A lot of the work that we do in parliament can feel quite remote from the lives of the people that we represent. That's what our constituents tell us really clearly. But this is not one of those times. The minister has just made a contribution to the debate which I find very hard to hear, coming from Victoria. The truth is that there are a variety of enormous failings that are completely the fault of the Prime Minister and the Minister for Health and Aged Care, and I'm still waiting for some type of contrition about some of the things that have led us to where we are today.

Here we are in Victoria, in lockdown No. 4. I just want to say that everyone in parliament today should be—and, I hope, is—thinking of the people who are especially vulnerable in our community. These are terrifying times for people, especially those who have underlying physical or mental health conditions. I think of the people who live alone, for whom these periods of lockdown are intensely lonely and intensely difficult to get through. There are almost seven million people living in Victoria. It's very difficult for everyone here. What we really want is for the federal government to stand up and take responsibility—to break the habit of a lifetime and take responsibility for some of the things that have gone wrong on their watch, which have taken us up to this point today.

The health minister said in very glorious terms that the federal government has 'stepped in' with respect to the situation in Victoria. Again, I would say: let's remember that we would not be in lockdown again in Victoria if we had a quarantine program that actually worked. If the federal government took its constitutional responsibility for quarantine seriously, did what is so obviously the right solution here and built purpose-built quarantine facilities around the country, then we would not be having the 17 outbreaks in hotel quarantine that we've seen over the last six months. Then, of course, there's the vaccination program. If we were anywhere near where the US and other comparable countries are, then there would not be this absolute sweep of fear blasting through the state that I live in.

I know I speak for all Victorians when I say that my heart truly sank when I saw that the COVID outbreak in Victoria had found its way into residential aged care. What residents and staff went through in the last outbreak in aged care was nothing short of truly horrifying and terrifying. You cannot feel the intensity of that experience unless you go to these homes and talk to the workers and residents. I've talked to older Australians whose eyes have literally filled with tears as they've talked to me about the experience of lifelong friends of theirs dying overnight, of the terror of feeling a little bit sick one day and thinking: 'This is the end for me. I'm going to get COVID and die.' People were going to bed at night and wondering if they would wake up the next morning. That was the life of older Australians within these aged-care homes. And what the staff went through you wouldn't wish on anyone. It was weeks of not being able to hug their children, weeks of feeling guilty because they were going to work and hence exposing their families to danger, but also knowing that if they didn't go to work there would be no-one there to look after the residents they have so much fondness and regard for.

We could have avoided the threat of this happening again. We have all the tools, resources and policies we need to prevent this from happening again. The only reason that we are back here is because of the total incompetence of the federal government when it comes to rolling out the vaccine program and, in particular, rolling it out in aged care. We know that the program of vaccinating residents has been very troubled, such that, when this outbreak first started in Victoria, there were 29 aged-care homes who had had no dose of the vaccine. I still cannot believe this.

We need to think about the staff. The federal government promised us that all staff and residents would be vaccinated by March, but essentially they've allowed aged-care workers to be on their own. The government have told aged-care workers that it is not the government's problem and that they have to get vaccinated on their own time. As a consequence, firstly, the federal government can't tell us how many have been vaccinated and, secondly, their best guess is that it is somewhere in the order of 10 per cent.

There are a lot of other failings going on here in residential aged care, but I want the federal government—the Prime Minister and his minister—to stand up tomorrow and deliver an apology, which is what Victorians deserve as we face another difficult week of a COVID outbreak here in Victoria.

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