Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Hansard source

Minister Colbeck has staked out today that he's simply under political attack and that the opposition's continual questioning of him is somehow unjustified. This question time we saw more and more simple facts come out that highlight the incompetence now not only of Minister Colbeck but indeed of the entire government in failing to take account of the grievous situation confronting aged care, particularly in Victoria.

We've seen more than 350 deaths and yet we have seen nothing from this government except talking up purported relativities of how well they're doing compared to the rest of the world or other parts of the globe. The simple fact is that these deaths were preventable. They were absolutely preventable. They were preventable by this government if they had put in place proper responses to what had happened at Dorothy Henderson Lodge and at Newmarch House. Indeed, the aged-care royal commission and other incidents that happened in aged care some 12 months ago and before that all highlight how ill prepared aged care is for these pandemic-type situations.

We have a government which has not put in place the measures that would have prevented this. It's all very well for the government to blame Victoria, but the simple fact is that this situation is not occurring in all aged-care settings. It is occurring in settings where it's got in and where there has been poor control of transmission of the virus. There is a lack of PPE in some of these places and there is a lack of training in some of these places. And what I think is most telling of all is the appalling rates of pay for aged-care workers who are doing intimate care support—feeding people, putting them to bed, changing their clothes—but do not have adequate personal protective equipment. They are showering them, taking them to the toilet, managing people with dementia in all their daily intimate activities, and they do not have adequate personal protective equipment.

These are things that should have been a top priority right from the outset—in response to Dorothy Henderson Lodge, in response to Newmarch House. The simple fact—and Senator O'Sullivan should know about these issues—is that the aged-care wage, which is close to the minimum wage, means that if you currently take home JobSeeker because you're not getting enough hours and you take on some part-time hours in aged care then you could lose your eligibility for JobSeeker. So there is no incentive to work. This is another driving force behind the lack of aged-care staff in some settings. The government fiddled around with settings within our social security system without actually fixing some of the problems that confront people when it comes to disincentives to work. People are expected to work for $10 an hour, after you consider those disincentives to work.

This is an appalling state of affairs that this government has failed to take accountability for. We've heard that the minister for aged care has failed to brief the cabinet. He's briefed the Prime Minister. Well, the Prime Minister needs to take responsibility for the mess in aged care. There are hundreds of grieving families around this nation, not just those grieving for those who have died from COVID but also those who've been locked out of aged-care settings and therefore unable to be with their loved ones in their dying days. This is an appalling state of affairs, and the government must show some respect and accountability.