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](http://archive.junkee.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/aged-care-main.png)
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 except when someone dies
luv,
Scott— Josh Bornstein (@JoshBBornstein) August 18, 2020
“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.
.@mjrowland68: Does the buck stop with you as Prime Minister for the litany of aged care failures?@ScottMorrisonMP: We regulate aged care, but when there is a public health pandemic … then they are things that are managed from Victoria. pic.twitter.com/3yUUGRPjHC
— News Breakfast (@BreakfastNews) August 18, 2020
According to the PM @BreakfastNews aged care is a federal responsibility but preventing you from getting sick while you’re there is the states’ responsibility. One of the inanities of federalism right there.
— Barrie Cassidy (@barriecassidy) August 18, 2020
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.
I'm just working through Morrison's logic. His government
– funds aged care
– regulates aged care
– runs aged care workforce policy
– was supposed to oversee aged care pandemic plans
– supports aged care workers working at multiple sites
But it's Victoria's fault? https://t.co/I6aglN1xCQ— Bernard Keane (@BernardKeane) August 18, 2020
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.”
Morrison dodging accountability for aged care is part of a broader political strategy: never own up. It’s how the government has survived robodebt, sports rorts and dozen more scandals unscathed
— Joshua Badge (@joshuabadge) August 19, 2020
To clarify: aged care is a federal government responsibility only up to the point where there is a problem.
I can’t be any clearer than that.
— Scott Morrison PM of Australia (parody) (@ScottyFromMktg) August 19, 2020
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.”