Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

As I say, whether it be Minister Colbeck, the Prime Minister or senators in this chamber, they will always find someone else to blame for what we have seen occur in our aged-care facilities, as long as that person is not themselves.

Clearly, this is the responsibility of the federal government and in particular the aged-care minister, Minister Colbeck. It isn't that long ago that I remember there being another aged-care minister in this country under a Liberal government, Bronwyn Bishop. She was the minister who oversaw what became known as the kerosene baths scandal—disgraceful circumstances in Australian aged-care homes. One death resulted. She at least had the good grace to resign from her post. Yet, in contrast, we have a minister here, completely asleep at the wheel, completely failing to take responsibility for the pandemic entering and spreading like wildfire through aged-care facilities in Victoria and now claiming the lives of over 450 older Australians, who remains in the job. Everyone knows—and you only have to look at the Senate backbench to see that they know—that this minister is not going to be in the role for very much longer. It is a matter of time. We are all just waiting for the reshuffle that will occur when Senator Cormann retires. We all know that the deckchairs will be reshuffled and rearranged and there will be someone else put into the role of aged-care minister.

But you'd have to say that, in this government, it doesn't really seem to matter who is the minister, because whoever has been the minister has presided over a complete disaster in our aged-care system. This government has been in power for seven years. They have had seven years to fix the aged-care system that they are responsible for. They have had report after report after review after submission after framework after guideline telling them over and over again that the aged-care system is broken, that it needs more funding and that it needs fundamental overhaul. Yet, no matter who we've had sitting in the chair as aged-care minister, they have ignored those warnings and they have failed to do what has been recommended. They've been called out by their own royal commission for failing to implement recommendations and failing to have a plan, and now, of course, we're seeing the consequences.

It's not just about the numbers of people who are affected. Just think about those stories that we've heard of maggots and of ants crawling all over older Australians. My father turned 80 this year. Realistically, it won't be too many more years before he'll be in an aged-care facility. I'm just horrified at the idea that he might end up being in a facility where they are the kinds of conditions in which people are treated. But that is how people are being treated in the aged-care facilities that this federal government is responsible for.

The time for action is well past due. This government simply has got to do something about this. We've had this interim report, labelled Neglect, handed down recently, and we're still seeing problems in the aged-care system. They set up a royal commission, saying that that was going to be the solution, and, now that it's providing solutions, they're ignoring those as well. We cannot leave older Australians to continue to suffer. (Time expired)