Embattled Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck has rejected calls to resign despite nearly 700 deathsxjmtzyw in facilities in the past six weeks.
Senator Colbeck, who came under fire earlier this year for attending a cricket game instead of a senate Covid-19 committee, fronted senate estimates on Wednesday and was immediately called into question by Queensland senator Murray Watt.
Referring to a report by Network Ten on Tuesday night that Prime Minister Scott Morrison is “getting ready to sack one of his scandal-plagued ministers”, understood to be Alan Tudge, Senator Watt asked why Senator Colbeck still had his job.
“After everything we’ve seen in aged care, shouldn’t that (the minister being sacked) be you?” Senator Watt asked.
Senator Colbeck responded: “No, I don’t believe so”.
Firing up, Senator Watt tried again: “You think that you’ve done a good enough job in this portfolio despite the deaths that we’ve seen over a couple of different outbreaks in aged care?
“You don’t think you’re the scandal-plagued minister who should be resigning?
“How can anyone have confidence in you, if they’re a resident in aged care, if they’re a family member of someone in aged care, if they’re a worker in aged care, that you are the man to fix the system which is in absolute crisis?”
When Senator Colbeck failed to respond, instead reinstating the government’s commitment to responding to all recommendations of the royal commission, Senator Watt cited sobering statistics of the number of deaths in aged care.
“In the time that you’ve been the Minister for Aged Care Services, over 1600 residential care residents have died of Covid. This year alone, which is only a bit over a month old, over 700 aged care residents have died from Covid,” Senator Watt said.
“Over 17,000 confirmed cases in residential aged care. But you don’t think that you should be the scandal-plagued minister to resign from this government?”
Senator Colbeck disputed the data cited by Senator Watt despite Department of Health officials providing official data later in the grilling.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 1658 aged care residents have died of Covid-19 – 685 in 2020, 282 in 2021 and 691 since January 1, 2022.
Senator Colbeck said Australia wasn’t unique in having aged care deaths.
“We are going through a global pandemic, and the suggestion that’s implied by your answer that if you were in government no one would have died in aged care from Covid doesn’t stand up,” he said.
“It is very clear that the measures that we’ve put in place during the pandemic have improved the circumstances in residential aged care.”
Senator Watt demanded to know whether Senator Colbeck would finally call the aged care situation a “crisis”.
“I’ve been very careful about the language that I’ve used,” Senator Colbeck said.
Estimates was told there were 915 aged care facilities – an estimated third of all facilities – in Australia with Covid-19.
How many aged care residents died of Covid-19 this year after receiving their booster shot is yet to be determined.
One unnamed jurisdiction has found that of 410 deaths in its facilities between December 1, 2021, and February 9 of this year, only 87 – or 21 per cent – had received a booster.
In that same jurisdiction, 233 people who died had received two doses and 90 were unvaccinated.
