Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We are witnessing the appalling failure of this government to protect our most vulnerable in a pandemic. Older Australians in care and those who love them and care for them are reduced to living in fear. The Morrison government has clearly failed to act in response to the aged-care royal commission's interim report, tellingly titled Neglect, and the warnings from COVID-19 outbreaks in the northern hemisphere and at Dorothy Henderson Lodge and Newmarch House, resulting in the tragic and unnecessary deaths of 335 Australians in aged care.

This country has agreed that older Australians in care have specific rights, and I note here just some of the rights set out in the Charter of Aged Care Rights:

1. safe and high quality care and services;

2. be treated with dignity and respect;

3. have my identity, culture and diversity valued and supported;

4. live without abuse and neglect;

5. be informed about my care and services in a way I understand; …

And that's not even the full list. How can we possibly have any faith or confidence in a government so negligent in its responsibilities and with so little respect for these rights? How does a system that unravels to the extent that an older Australian in aged care is found in a soiled bed, unfed, unwashed, with their wounds untended and with ants crawling on their body in any way—in any way!—reflect a respect for these basic, basic rights? How does leaving our vulnerable older Australians unable to communicate with family for days on end show respect for their rights? How does leaving them uninformed, afraid and isolated demonstrate any level of respect at all? How does knowingly letting aged-care facilities experience critical staff shortages because of a pandemic demonstrate respect for the rights of the residents?

It's time for the Prime Minister and his Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians to be honest. They knew about the potential for a disastrous withdrawal of staff because of coronavirus but they did not do enough to prepare for this. Evidence to the aged-care royal commission shows that Dorothy Henderson Lodge and Newmarch House lost most of their workforces within hours or days of an outbreak, months before the Victorian outbreaks. Yet Mr Morrison said on 29 July, 'The events which have tragically occurred in Victorian aged-care homes could not have been anticipated or foreshadowed.'

But his government was repeatedly warned that it could happen. We are left shocked and questioning: why did Prime Minister Morrison and Minister Colbeck not have a proper plan to deal with the loss of workforce in aged-care homes? Why has this government grandly and publicly claimed that it has established a surge workforce for aged care when closer examination reveals that it has spent just half of the money it set aside for this workforce which was meant to assist aged-care homes impacted by coronavirus? This is completely unacceptable. The whole point of having a responsibility is to be ready when the worst happens: natural disasters, pandemics or catastrophic episodes where governments step up and lead.

What do we have? A government that squibs and shirks and puts out media releases and makes grand statements. But when we look at the substance of what they've done, it is too little and it is far, far too late. The minister for aged care seems to think that community transmission of the virus responsible for COVID-19 somehow relieves him of responsibility for his ministry. Yesterday in this chamber he said:

Unfortunately, in Victoria, where we have uncontrolled community spread, the virus has inevitably got into residential aged care. That is what happens.

'Unfortunately'? 'Inevitably'? I don't think so. I offer to finish that last sentence for Senator Colbeck. It goes like this: 'This is what happens when you don't have a plan, when either you aren't perceptive enough to look up the definition of the word "pandemic" or you don't have a grasp of the faith and responsibility that has been bestowed upon you by the Australian people.' That's how I would end that sentence.

What is unfolding across the aged-care system is extremely tragic and very sad, and my heartfelt condolences go out to all those who have lost loved ones. But the saddest thing is that this has always been preventable. The structural flaws in the aged-care sector were well known prior to this pandemic, and the government's response should have taken them into account. The sector abounds with committed, caring people who are working hard, stressed beyond belief and trying desperately to do their jobs with limited training, limited funds, too many residents to care for at one time, inadequate PPE and inadequate training. They are workers with no sick leave and no job security who are on ludicrously low wages for the level of skill and responsibility required—workers who themselves live in constant fear that it might be them who inadvertently bring the virus into their workplace or home to their families.

These workers and the residents they care for deserve better. They deserve reassurance that someone has got their back and that, if they can't go to work because they feel unwell, there is someone else who can step up and step in to wash and feed and tend to and care for the elderly residents in their workplace. They do not have that reassurance. Residents and their loved ones should be able to have the confidence to know that their rights will be respected, that they will receive quality care and that their voices will be heard and their dignity maintained. They do not have this confidence.

So we are left with the trauma and the wreckage of a system where everyone now lives in fear: the residents and their loved ones and the workers. At the recent aged-care royal commission three-day hearing, Peter Rozen QC concluded the hearing by saying:

… none of the problems that have been associated with the response of the aged care sector to COVID-19 was unforeseeable.

…   …   …

Tragically, not all that could be done was done.

He reiterated that the Morrison government didn't have a plan for aged care.

Pandemics and natural disasters by their very nature create terrible fear in the community. The government's job is to do all in its power to allay that fear by acting, by doing, by leading, by having a plan, by spending the money, by working co-operatively and by being ready to stand by the states, the aged-care workers, the families of residents and the residents themselves as they face this awful scourge. They don't allay fear by quibbling about states' responsibilities, by shirking responsibility, by not mobilising resources and training in a timely fashion, by turning a blind eye to the harsh reality of insecure work, by failing to address staff ratios and by asserting that disastrous outcomes are inevitable and unfortunate.

We're all frightened and we're all on the front line when it comes to fighting this pandemic, none more so than our aged-care community. This government's abrogation of its responsibility has left that community without the weapons that they need to adequately face this battle. It has left them vulnerable and afraid, and that is a disgrace—an utter disgrace. The woeful neglect of our elderly Australians demonstrated by this government time and time again should cause the minister for aged care, the Prime Minister and all members of the government to hang their heads in shame. Many, many Australians in aged care are fearful and distressed, while those who love them are frightened and feel powerless. Many others weep for their dead.