Labor supports the Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Emergency Leave) Bill 2020. It's a good idea to introduce a new type of leave that permanent residential aged-care residents can utilise during situations such as natural disasters, pandemics or other large-scale emergencies that can affect the safe provision of residential aged care and, indeed, the safety of the resident.
I don't blame many families for wanting to have their loved ones home with them during this terrible time. The shadow minister has outlined the measures that have been taken by the government and also where we think the gaps are. I thank her for outlining that. The reason many families of loved ones in aged care want to take them home during this time is that the coronavirus has highlighted the longstanding flaws in the aged-care system. When we look back on Australia's response to the pandemic, the catastrophic situations unfolding at Newmarch House and Dorothy Henderson Lodge will surely stand out as specific failures.
In the case of Newmarch, after scores of infections and tragic deaths—which we've just heard have, unfortunately, increased—the regulator finally stepped in, forcing Anglicare to appoint a government approved manager and threatening to revoke its licence. They were allowed to refuse extra staffing and oversight. Why is that so? Why were relatives left distraught and desperate for news when none was forthcoming? It's been reported that families felt excluded from significant medical decisions and further reports of failure of care. We wouldn't know what was happening inside, as the regulator had suspended spot checks during this time. We've heard that testing of staff was delayed and that infected residents were not isolated from others. It was only when the situation became absolutely dire that the minister insisted on intervention. The shadow minister, the member for Franklin, called for the situation to be investigated by the royal commission, and it will be. That is a good thing, and I congratulate her.
The minister has said that this poor example is not indicative of the sector at large, and it's true. It seems that the Australian aged-care sector has been spared the full extent of what we've witnessed overseas, but it doesn't mean that we can take our eyes off the ball or that we don't consider the impact the control measures have had on the sector. I'd like to read a section of an article published by Dr Sarah Holland-Batt, a well-known advocate for better aged care. She writes:
While Australian aged care has been spared the full extent of the horrors that have unfolded overseas, we cannot become complacent. Federal Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck told Sky News this week that if the royal commission focused its attention on Newmarch House, 'they're not doing a service to the aged-care sector because I think that across the board they've done quite well'. This rose-tinted assessment may prove naive.
While the sector—with the tragic exceptions of Dorothy Henderson Lodge in Sydney's Macquarie Park and Newmarch House—appears to have controlled the spread effectively so far, we don't yet know what the effect of time-consuming infection control measures has been on the standard of basic care. We don't know how well providers have responded to the significant vacuum left by volunteer carers and relatives, who usually supplement their workforce by helping feed residents and undertaking other duties. We don't know how residents' mental health and wellbeing—already areas of grave concern—have been affected during punitive lockdowns, in which residents have been cooped up in their rooms, isolated and lonely. We don't know whether the already alarming prevalence of physical and chemical restraint has increased further because of additional pressures on staffing.
These are all good points, and ones which we should be tuned into acutely and be keeping our eye on during this time.
We don't blame the nurses and carers, of course, in the sector. We thank them, as the shadow minister has done. Rather, we look to the abysmally slow governmental and regulatory response, because we know that workers in the sector and the sector at large have started behind the eight ball. We've had years of neglect from this government that led to a crisis in the sector, a crisis that led to a royal commission. Alarm bells should have been pealing madly when the COVID crisis began, with the possible consequences for the elderly in aged care—a cohort that we knew was most vulnerable to the virus. We should have known because the royal commission has laid bare the issues plaguing Australian aged care, including chronic understaffing. I've had personal experience of what that is like in an aged-care facility, where, as a nurse, you are trying to feed a couple of patients while keeping an eye on a wandering patient who's at risk of falling, and you're looking out for other staff members to make sure that they themselves aren't struggling with a resident's issue. It may be that you have to leap up and stop feeding your clients because you have to help elsewhere. I know what it's like to have inadequate staff training and skill mix in facilities. Aged care is not babysitting, nor is it simply someone's home—like they were coping independently in their own house. They are in a nursing home because they need nursing care, care that is often complex. They need hygiene care, sure, but there is caring for wounds and medical conditions like diabetes or cardiac problems, or, more seriously— and, sadly, more often—dementia. All of this requires skills—high-level skills—to deal with. And providers of aged-care services enter into a contract to manage all of this. They agree to manage these conditions as best they can for their clients. They have a duty of care to do so.
The royal commission has laid bare an issue of overreliance on chemical and physical restraints, often as a direct result of understaffing or lack of clinical expertise. The system is plagued by a total lack of transparency and accountability. Providers, sure, have been given extra funds—as an example, they've been given extra funds to deal with this crisis—but we don't know where those funds have gone. They're not necessarily tied to quality care and they're not necessarily tied to the provision of PPE. We don't know where those funds have gone. Have they gone to cross-subsidising other parts of the business, or have they been tucked away in the Cayman Islands? We don't know, because there is no accountability and no transparency of taxpayers' funding. All of these things have led to overall neglect, and none of these issues would have gone away during the coronavirus crisis. Rather, it would all have been exacerbated under an already very tired system.
I have stood in this place before and said that the workforce is one of the most crucial parts of fixing our broken aged-care system. We've heard time and time again that staff want more time to care. It has emerged as a key issue of the aged-care royal commission, and it is something that the wonderful aged-care unions—the United Workers Union, the ANMF and HACSU—have been raising for years. Staffing numbers, skill mix and staff training, qualifications and experience are key concerns which negatively impact on the ability of staff to provide quality care for all residents. This is true in normal times, let alone during a health crisis. The impetus to get this right is huge. We must have a quality workforce that sees aged-care workers getting the respect and dignity they deserve. As I said, it is not babysitting. COVID-19 has highlighted that this is a system that lacks accountability and transparency, as I said before. All funding that goes to aged care must go with tighter regulations to ensure that providers put money to better care. It's a simple premise.
Again, I too would like to thank all the workers who have struggled through this difficult time, doing the best that they can—the carers, the nurses and everybody in aged care. Unfortunately, the government's inaction and neglect of the system over years has helped exacerbate what is a terrible situation right now. It's time that the government put real effort and real resources into fixing the aged-care crisis.
