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senate vote 2022-02-08#2
Edited by
mackay staff
on
2022-04-29 15:58:59
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Title
Motions — Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services- Motions - Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services - Let a vote happen
Description
<p class="speaker">Kristina Keneally</p><p>I seek leave to move a motion relating to the performance of the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services.</p><p>Leave not granted.</p><p>Pursuant to contingent notice of motion standing in the name of Senator Wong, I move:</p><p class="italic">That so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent me from moving a motion to provide for the consideration of a matter, namely a motion to give precedence to a motion relating to the performance of the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services.</p><p>Let me be clear from the outset: Senator Richard Colbeck has repeatedly demonstrated, over a prolonged period of time, that he is incapable of fulfilling the task of looking after the interests of older, vulnerable Australians. For this matter alone, this minister should resign. If he does not have the decency to resign, the integrity to resign, the self-awareness to resign, the Prime Minister should sack him. And, if the Prime Minister will not sack this minister, then he confirms he does not have the character to lead this nation.</p><p>Our aged-care sector is in an absolute crisis. It's the third year of this pandemic. There were almost 12,000 aged-care residents and workers infected with COVID in more than 1,100 facilities as of Friday. There have been over 600 deaths amongst aged-care residents this year. Tens of thousands of aged-care residents are still waiting for a booster dose. Aged-care facilities have been left without rapid antigen tests and PPE. Aged-care residents have been left without food, water and medical care because the government, in a third year of a pandemic, after last year's diabolical handling of COVID in aged care, failed to learn and failed to plan. This government always acts too little too late and only acts when there's an absolute crisis on its hands. We have had hundreds of Australians in aged care die of COVID. How many deaths would have been preventable if only this aged-care minister had acted?</p><p>Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, we know that the Morrison-Joyce government ignored aged care. It's all there in one word: neglect. That is not my word. That is the word chosen by the royal commission into aged care to title their interim report: <i>N</i><i>eglect</i>. This is a government that neglected older citizens in aged care before the pandemic, neglected them in the pandemic and continues to neglect them to this day. We had a clarion call from the former Liberal Premier of New South Wales, Mike Baird, who is now CEO of HammondCare, begging this government to send in the Australian Defence Force 26 days ago. The Prime Minister rejected it. This minister rejected it. This minister said the sector was performing exceptionally well. Those were his words. And he felt so relaxed and comfortable about the aged-care sector that he toddled off to the cricket for three days.</p><p>Well, he probably did get booed, Senator Bilyk; you make an excellent point. He got booed at the cricket and he should get booted out of his job. It is an absolute disgrace. It is an utter disaster. Disease is running rampant through under-resourced facilities. There are too few staff to care for those living there. Our greatest generation has been left unwashed and without food. Have you no shame? Have you no responsibility? Have you no care? What happened to ministerial responsibility under this government? Where has it gone? Was it ever there? If Richard Colbeck can have job security under this government, it is absolutely clear that there is almost nothing you can't fail at and still be confident of retaining your job under Mr Morrison, who takes no responsibility, who tried to blame the states and other people for the outbreaks of COVID in aged care. He was warned, by the way, on rapid antigen tests. So many people warned him. Katie Allen warned him. The call was coming from inside the House, by the way. The business community warned him. The Transport Workers Union warned him. He was warned that we would need rapid antigen tests and just like his 'It's not a race' approach to vaccines, it was not a race to get those rapid antigen tests—failing older Australians and leaving them behind. To those people who say, 'What would it do to change the minister?': it would send a clear message that this government gives a brass razoo about older people in aged care! Let somebody else—anybody else!—have responsibility for this portfolio, because surely nobody could do as bad a job as the incompetent aged-care minister in the absolute crisis—the C-word he dares not utter—in aged care. The Prime Minister has acknowledged there is a crisis. The Prime Minister backflipped and sent in the ADF. The next thing the Prime Minister needs to do is sack the minister for aged care.</p> <p class="speaker">Sue Lines</p><p>Senator Keneally, I just remind you to use the correct titles when referring to those in the other place and to senators.</p> <p class="speaker">Simon Birmingham</p><p>Well, we have yet another example that it's all politics and zero policy from those opposite. It's all personality attacks and little focusing on the substance of issues that need to be addressed. When you listen to those opposite, you'd be forgiven for thinking there is some sort of alternative universe Australia could operate in—an alternative universe in which COVID can be locked in a box and somehow kept away, an alternative universe in which omicron is not the significant global game changer it is. But that's not true. That is not the reality of the world we face. We face a global pandemic, a highly infectious global pandemic—a global pandemic which has produced new variants that are more infectious and more transmissible and that, through that, have created new challenges. Those variants have, however, become less lethal, thankfully, and less likely to lead to severe hospitalisation and severe health outcomes. We can be grateful for that. The reality is COVID is spreading throughout the world. Omicron has seen a huge surge in case load right throughout the world, and no country has demonstrated that, when you have omicron COVID spreading throughout your community, you're somehow going to be able to completely keep it out of different sectors of your community, such as the aged-care sector.</p><p>Rather than denigrate the aged-care sector and aged-care workers, our government thanks them; I want to, and I know Minister Colbeck does. Does this motion that Senator Keneally has moved today thank aged-care workers anywhere in it? No, it doesn't. Does this motion thank aged-care operators anywhere in it? No, it doesn't. Does it acknowledge the circumstances? No. It's just a political diatribe we're seeing here, typical of the Labor Party. If there were a silver bullet to address the challenges in aged care, in dealing with omicron COVID-19, not only would we have sought to deliver that as a government; it might have provided a policy idea for those opposite, because they've shown no policy idea in the aged-care sector today—not a single policy idea from those opposite.</p><p>Our government has ensured 100 per cent of residential aged-care facilities have been visited by in-reach clinics to deliver booster doses. We have provided surge workforce capacity. More than 80,000 shifts have been filled by surge workforce, including nurses, GPs, care workers, allied health workers and executive ancillary staff. There is the private health agreement in place to utilise private hospital staff, with furloughing changes made to minimise the loss of staff due to requirements to isolate. In terms of PPE, we have seen more than 42 million masks, more than 15 million gowns, more than 43 million gloves, more than 12 million goggles and nearly 11 million rapid antigen tests delivered throughout the aged-care sector. We have made sure 50,000 treatments have been sent out to aged-care facilities across the country, ensuring that we prioritise those facing outbreak.</p> <p class="speaker">Kristina Keneally</p><p>When are they getting their boosters?</p> <p class="speaker">Simon Birmingham</p><p>Senator Keneally goes on: 'When are they getting their boosters?' All facilities have had the opportunity for people to have a booster, Senator Keneally. It is not the case that everybody will choose to have a booster. Some people won't choose to have a booster, because the reality is that some people in aged care are already in palliative care. Some people in aged care are part of end-of-life management. It is a sad reality, but it's a true reality that those opposite are blinkered to. They ignore the fact that these truths exist and pretend there is some sort of alternative universe. Even when we address the broader questions of aged care, this government, under Minister Colbeck and Minister Hunt, has provided an $18 billion response to the royal commission. It's a comprehensive response, dealing with more places in home care, dealing with minimum standards in residential care and lifting those standards in a range of different ways. We have responded comprehensively to the aged-care royal commission report, and our response contrasts with no response from those opposite—no response aside from the type of rubbish that is bowled up today, the type of politicisation that is bowled up today, rather than the acknowledgment of the challenges and the hard work of those who are helping this sector get through some of the most challenging times. <i>(Time expired)</i></p> <p class="speaker">Sue Lines</p><p>Just before I go to Senator Rice, I was reluctant to interrupt the minister mid sentence, but I do remind senators he has the right, as does every senator, to be heard in silence. I would ask you to respect that right.</p> <p class="speaker">Janet Rice</p><p>The Greens will be supporting this motion today, because the minister for aged services, Minister Colbeck, has failed. He has failed in his most basic of duties as a government minister, and that is to be keeping people safe. We are supporting this motion today because of the 587 people who have died in aged care in just the first five weeks of 2022, on top of all of the people who have died of COVID in aged care throughout 2020 and 2021. The minister has failed. There would have been fewer deaths from COVID of people in aged care if this government had been competent.</p><p>They have failed in the vaccine rollout in aged care. They have failed to provide boosters to everyone in aged care who wanted to be boostered. They have failed to provide the PPE that workers and visitors in aged-care homes need. They have failed to provide the rapid antigen tests that are needed. We have a situation where nurses and aged-care workers still have to pay for their own RATs. They have failed to provide the adequate working conditions to support nurses and aged-care workers to continue working in aged care, and they have failed to provide that support such that we know that 20 per cent of nurses have said they want to leave working in aged care in the next year. Frankly, they have done an amazing job over the last years. I do not blame them because of the conditions they're having to be working under because of the actions of this government. This minister has failed to do all of that. But, of course, he didn't fail to get to the cricket. Apparently that was a priority! And never mind that he earnt more in that day he went to the cricket than the aged-care bonus they have promised workers.</p><p>For the Greens I want to say, particularly to the families who are mourning and grieving for the people they've lost: we share your grief. And to the residents who are tired and frustrated and anxious and locked down in aged-care homes: we hear your frustration. To the aged-care workers, who are doing ceaseless hours, waiting desperately for the support and recognition you deserve: we hear your anger. The minister may think that it's acceptable to go to the cricket while people die; we do not.</p> <p class='motion-notice motion-notice-truncated'>Long debate text truncated.</p>-
- The majority voted against a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2022-02-08.107.2) to suspend the usual procedural rules - known as [standing orders](https://peo.gov.au/understand-our-parliament/how-parliament-works/parliament-at-work/standing-orders/) - in order to let a vote take place. Because this vote failed, the other vote won't happen.
- ### Motion text
- > *That so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent me from moving a motion to provide for the consideration of a matter, namely a motion to give precedence to a motion relating to the performance of the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services.*
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