Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In question time today, Senator Colbeck again failed to acknowledge that there is a crisis in aged care. He has failed to acknowledge that we are in a state of emergency in aged care today. He has failed in his most fundamental and basic duty, and that is to keep our most vulnerable elderly Australians safe. He has failed. He has failed and he should go. This minister has ignored report after report and warning after warning from experts for too long. He has ignored the calls for help from workers, from residents, from providers and from families for too long. He has simply ignored his responsibility as a minister for too long. Australians have waited far too long for the Prime Minister to sack this incompetent minister.

Never forget that, as this crisis unfolded—when aged-care residents were locked in their rooms, when aged-care residents were going without food and going without water, when aged-care residents were going without basic care—this minister took himself off to the cricket for three days. For three days, he enjoyed the cricket while aged-care residents suffered. While aged-care workers worked back-to-back 14-hour shifts, this minister thought it was appropriate and acceptable to take himself off to the cricket not just for one day but for three days—right at the time when aged-care residents were going hungry, right at the time when aged-care residents were dying. It is a complete disgrace. This minister must go. He must resign, and if he won't the Prime Minister must sack him today.

There is one thing I can agree with in Senator Colbeck's comments in question time today—it is that this is no longer a crisis, because we've gone past that; this is an absolute catastrophe. It is a full-blown catastrophe. It is not just a catastrophe that has occurred during the COVID pandemic; it is a catastrophe that has been nine years in the making. It's a catastrophe that aged-care workers have been warning us about for years. You only need to talk to those workers to know exactly what is going on in aged care today.

That is why Senator Colbeck and the Prime Minister should have gone outside and spoken to the ANMF members who are here today to tell their stories. These are the workers who were trying, in the most difficult of conditions, to protect and keep safe our vulnerable aged-care residents—unlike Minister Colbeck and the Prime Minister. I listened to their stories today. I listened to what they've heard and seen over the past few months. They said that they are simply drowning. They said they've been underwater in aged care for a long time under this government, and today they are simply drowning. They were treading water last year; right now they're underwater and overwhelmed. There are no staff to fill the shifts that need to be filled. They are exhausted, burnt out and heartbroken, because on a day-to-day basis they are running between rooms trying to make decisions about who to help—whether to get someone off the floor or whether to go to a dementia patient who's in distress. These are the decisions that are facing aged-care workers today because the minister will not do his job, because he can't make the right decisions to keep our aged-care workers and our aged-care residents safe.

Our aged-care workers are making heartbreaking decisions. What they want is time. They just want the staff. They just want to be there for people. They want to hold their hands in their last moments, to listen to their stories, to give them the care and dignity they deserve. Instead, people are being locked in their rooms, isolated, lonely and distraught, because of the failures of this minister and this government.

Question agreed to.