Politics

ScoMo Has Spent The Morning Dodging Responsibility Over COVID-19 Aged Care Deaths

The federal government literally regulates the industry, but Scotty says public health is Victoria's problem

aged care scott morrison

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison is being criticised for trying to blame the states for the massive fuck ups in the aged care sector, that has led to very preventable deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Around 70 percent of Australia’s COVID-19 death toll stems from aged care.

It’s a sector that the federal government is responsible for, but this morning the PM tried to shift the blame for this onto Victoria instead, by saying public health was their responsibility.

“We regulate aged care, but when there is a public health pandemic then public health — whether it gets into aged care, shopping centres, schools or anywhere else — then they are things that are managed from Victoria,” he told ABC News Breakfast host Michael Rowland.

“I don’t think it’s as binary as you suggest.”

Aged care in Australia is funded by the federal government and delivered by a mix of not-for-profit, for-profit and government providers across the country.

A royal commission into the sector was announced in 2018 after horrific instances of abuse, neglect, negligence and non-compliance were exposed at nursing homes across the country.

Australia’s first COVID-19 cluster emerged at a Sydney aged care home in March, and Victoria is currently fighting outbreaks at several care facilities in Melbourne.

Last week the royal commission was told many of the coronavirus-related deaths in aged care homes were preventable.

One example of this — despite outbreaks earlier in the year, face masks were not made mandatory for aged care workers until July.

Senior counsel assisting the royal commission, Peter Rozen QC, also said the sector was not prepared before the first aged care cluster emerged in March, and it’s not prepared now.

The head of the Federal Health Department, Professor Brendan Murphy, told the commission there was a plan in place, but did also concede the workforce could have been better prepared.

“I don’t think anyone expected that several thousand health workers — our health and aged care workforce is the same workforce — would be in quarantine and isolation, and we would have such a critical issue in health workforce,” he said.

“We’ve never seen that anywhere else in the country.”

ScoMo has previously apologised for failures in the federal government’s response to COVID-19 in aged care homes.

“On the days that the system falls short, on the days that expectations are not met, I’m deeply sorry about that, of course I am,” he said last week.

“I know that everyone who is involved in the process who is trying to meet those expectations is equally sorry.

“On days where workforces are completely stripped from facilities and there is nobody there, and you scramble for a workforce to try to put them in place, and you have ADF officers who go there at 11:00 at night to try to clean up the mess, that’s not good enough.”