Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question without notice is to the Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians, Senator Colbeck. The Morrison government was warned of the risks to the aged-care workforce in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak, yet within three days of the first COVID-19 case being detected at the Dorothy Henderson Lodge on 3 March all permanent carers were forced into isolation. Why did the Morrison government ignore this warning?

Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I reject the premise of the question from Senator Carr. In fact, we acted very, very quickly to ensure that there was capacity to provide surge workforce to the aged-care sector in Australia. In fact, I think the announcement of our funding was on about 11 March, which was only a few days after the Dorothy Henderson Lodge outbreak started. So we acted very, very quickly and put over $100 million on the table to support the aged-care sector with surge workforce. So I reject completely the assertion of the question from Senator Carr, because we acted extremely quickly to ensure that there was capacity available, and we have continued to build and grow that capacity as the scale of the outbreak has continued, particularly in Victoria.

All through this process, we engaged with the aged-care sector. We started engaging with the aged-care sector back in January. We talked to them about their responsibilities with respect to having an infection control plan. We talked to them about the COVID-19 virus during February. We continue to work with this sector and have been there consistently with them all through this pandemic, providing them resources, ensuring they had information, providing advice from the AHPPC, acting on the advice of the AHPPC in our response to the pandemic and ensuring that they had information and resources available to them to be able to meet the requirements of an infection if, in fact, it occurred within their facility. It is worth noting that, as we said yesterday, 97 per cent of facilities in this country haven't had an outbreak, which I think is an incredibly good statistic for this country.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Carr, a supplementary question?

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Within a week of the first COVID-19 case being detected at the Newmarch House on 11 April, 87 per cent of its staff were forced into isolation. Why did the Morrison government also ignore this warning?

Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Not only did we not ignore it—so I again completely reject the premise of Senator Carr's question—we continued to build our workforce capacity through the pandemic. We continued to provide additional resources, and we continue to do that. In fact, we are working with other sectors to train staff and to build on workforce capacity. One of the reasons we built the arrangement with the Victorian government to close elective surgery was to provide not only additional capacity in the workforce but also beds within hospitals to relieve the stress on aged-care facilities. In fact, the hospital agreement which was part of the COVID national health plan, which pre-dates all of these circumstances, was put in place to ensure that we have the capacity to meet the needs of older Australians.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Carr, a final supplementary question?

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Elizabeth from Victoria said hospital doctors found that her mother also had a secondary chest infection and a UTI, in addition to COVID-19. She had been left in soiled nappies for hours—on many occasions, for the whole day. How many more of the 1,100 older Australians with COVID-19 are there in aged care who were dehydrated, soiled and showing signs of neglect as a result of the Morrison government ignoring these warning? (Time expired)

Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I have said on a number of occasions, and as the Prime Minister has said on a number of occasions, in a number of facilities the circumstances were not as we would have wanted. They were not as we would have wanted, and residents, because of the circumstances that occurred, did not get the care that would have been received. We've acknowledged that and we've apologised for that, but what we have done is continue to build capacity to ensure that the facilities are well staffed and are providing the appropriate level of care, and we will continue to do that. Fortunately, what we're seeing now in Victoria is that, with the reduction in community transmission, there is also a reduction in the infection rate within aged-care facilities, which is relieving pressure, and we are now seeing a reduction in the number of active cases in Victoria, both in staff and in aged-care residents. So there is a direct correlation— (Time expired)