Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I've got four written down here, but it might be seven. I don't agree with the logical consequence that you seem to be suggesting—that is, any time there is some kind of sanction, we should shut down the facility—because, obviously, that would have a very big impact. What we need to have is appropriate regulatory action depending on the severity of the breach. That is good regulatory practice.

Given this event has occurred, the right thing to do is for the government to respond expeditiously to help those impacted, and that has occurred. Both the Commonwealth government and the Queensland Department of Health acted quickly to ensure that a level of care was provided to those impacted. That included the appointment of two nurse advisors. We've mobilised department staff nationally to assist. We've established an emergency hotline and we're now undertaking an assessment.

Once that initial care is provided, the next most important thing to do is to make sure that anything that has not been done correctly by the department or the regulatory authority is properly investigate. That's why I do welcome these questions. The government has already announced a full inquiry, to be led by Kate Carnell, into the circumstances leading up to the collapse of this facility to make sure we understand why it happened and, if anything has gone wrong here, to make sure appropriate action is taken and to, of course, put in place measures to ensure it does not happen again. That is what the government is focused on doing now.

The government overall here in this space is taking the issue of aged care incredibly seriously. It's been a strong focus of the Liberal National government for the past few years, and it has been a particular focus for Prime Minister Morrison in his term. One of the first decisions he made as Prime Minister was to establish a royal commission into aged-care facilities and aged-care services. Even before the findings of that commission are released, we will be increasing funding for the aged-care sector by $7 billion over five years. That will make sure we deliver more home care places and develop the skills that are needed in the workforce to provide a safe environment and a quality service to our older Australians. This is much more additional funding than was delivered by previous governments. It is right and proper that we make these decisions given our ageing population and the clear requirement that we treat the older people in our society with the respect and care they deserve. We are never going to get everything to be perfect, but the most important thing here is that we provide assistance to the people impacted and ensure that, as a government, we do things better every day and provide a better service to our older Australians over time.