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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services (Senator Colbeck) to questions without notice asked today by Senators Sheldon, Walsh, Watt and Grogan.

As we have seen in question time after question time, our national Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, Senator Colbeck, refuses to take any responsibility for the dire plight of senior Australians who are trapped in aged care in appalling circumstances, in incident after incident. It is leaving my home state of Western Australia incredibly scared of what it might mean when and if COVID actually arrives in the state. We have seen from this minister such abject unaccountability that it beggars belief.

We saw the minister in question time today simply point the finger back at the dysfunctional companies that are failing to uphold standards. He is responsible for the regulator. The government is responsible for aged care. He simply pointed the finger back at the Jeta Gardens aged-care home and said it was their responsibility to improve their standards. Well, sure it is, but look at how dysfunctional it is; look at the abject lack of care.

We have senior Australians in pain with injuries, jumping out of windows and breaking their legs because there is only one nurse to administer pain medication. Is it any wonder that this poor woman was left for 3½ hours? Is it any wonder that she threw herself off a third-floor balcony and broke her bones in multiple places. The incident report demonstrates that neglect was a contributing factor.

This is the minister who has refused to allow aged-care workers and pensioners to keep up with the cost of living, refusing to acknowledge the impact of the high rate of CPI here in Australia—the high rate of that consumer price index inflation and the impact it has on pensioners and, indeed, aged-care workers, who, in some cases, might earn as little as $1,400 a week. It is utterly appalling.

We have here a government that refuses to take responsibility for the plight of people in aged care. At Jeta Gardens, which was talked about in question time today, one resident has been locked in their room. He is 85 years old, with dementia. He's disoriented and, legitimately, thinks he has been abandoned. The aged-care home has not been communicating with his family. Jeta Gardens resident Ruth hadn't seen her family since December. Her family didn't know she had COVID until she was on her deathbed. They were robbed of the opportunity to spend time with her in her final days. I cannot begin to imagine what is going on on the frontline and how upset not only families and residents are but also how upset staff are. They are doing this work in our aged-care homes right around Australia and doing it with absolutely inadequate wages—inadequate wages that, according to the aged-care royal commission, contribute to the lack of staff and the lack of retention of staff.