Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'd settle for a bit of peace at the moment! Comparing our performance in Australia, a First-World developed country, to Florida or the United Kingdom, old Jim's ideological bedfellows, where it's a complete and utter disaster—exactly where Prime Minister Morrison would have taken the country if left to his own devices—is absolutely odious.

But this is about aged care. Minister Colbeck's performance in this chamber during question time today and yesterday and the day before has been excruciating. It should be a source of shame to him and an embarrassment to his colleagues. But the problem is much deeper than Minister Colbeck's embarrassing performance. It's systemic, it's political, it's an abject failure of governance and it's a symbol of the utter contempt that this government has for its most basic responsibilities—that is, to govern in the interests of all Australians. In this case it's older Australians, who deserve our respect, our love and the highest standards of service, not cuts or a system that's all about profiteering and neglect.

There were plenty of warnings. We went through those in some detail in question time today. Forty per cent of US COVID deaths have been in aged-care facilities, as have 80 per cent of Canada's deaths. There were the outbreaks at Newmarch and Dorothy Henderson Lodge in March. At the height of the Newmarch crisis, 87 per cent of their staff were unable to attend work. No action from the government! Federal advice was to prepare for up to 30 per cent of staff being infected or quarantined, yet only 50 per cent of this so-called surge funding, breathlessly announced in another press conference, another announcement, has been spent. A report from Professor Gilbert was handed to the government on 14 April. It was only made public when it was submitted to the royal commission into aged care. It focused on the outbreak at Dorothy Henderson Lodge, where six people died. The warnings went unheeded.

It's abundantly clear that Minister Colbeck isn't fit to run Australia's aged-care system, which is why, despite having the title of Australia's aged-care minister, he's had many of his responsibilities in this pandemic stripped away from him. The safest bet in politics at the moment is that Senator Colbeck's ministry will not survive the next reshuffle. Why was Senator Colbeck ever put in charge of our aged-care system? Senator Colbeck has no experience in the sector. He briefly served as Minister for Tourism and International Education. In 2016 he was demoted to fifth place on the Liberal Party's Tasmanian Senate ticket, and he only returned to the parliament because former Senator Parry had to leave. A man who the Tasmanian Liberals didn't even want to put into an electable position on the Tasmanian Senate ticket has been put in charge of a system that provides care for 1.3 million older Australians.

Beyond supporting the appointment of this minister, the Prime Minister is deeply implicated in the aged-care crisis. As determined as he always is to avoid responsibility, aged care is funded and regulated by the federal government. It is a core federal responsibility. From the Prime Minister there's no shortage of sympathetic words, crocodile tears and focus-group-tested apologies to the residents of Australia's aged-care system, but his fake empathy derives from only one thing, and that is his fear of the exposure of his role in the running down of Australia's aged-care system, in the cuts to funding for Australia's aged-care system, and his role as an utter failure at doing what should have been done all this year to make sure we defended Australia's aged-care residents against the coronavirus pandemic.

Question agreed to.