Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians) Share this | Hansard source

The government has been extremely active to ensure that senior Australians not only are safe but have access to the services that they need during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has continued to do all they can to meet the physical, mental health, social and emotional needs of aged-care consumers. The commission continues to undertake its critical work, including conducting site visits while ensuring that—particularly importantly—infection control requirements are met with inspectors entering aged-care facilities. While it's important to keep older Australians safe from COVID-19, it's also important to ensure that senior Australians in aged-care facilities continue to have visitors for their overall wellbeing. In that context, the code for visiting residential aged-care facilities has been a very, very important initiative undertaken by the government in conjunction with the sector.