Adam Langenberg: Oakden aged care scandal provides big test for Premier Steven Marshall

ALTHOUGH he’s enthusiastically bounded into office, Premier Steven Marshall has inherited a host of problematic issues he must deal with, writes Adam Langenberg.

• Oakden saga: Families furious over compensation delays
• Government promises to expedite compensation claims
• Oakden families meet with Premier Steven Marshall
• Profile: The heavy price paid by Oakden families

ALTHOUGH he’s enthusiastically bounded into office, Premier Steven Marshall has inherited a host of problematic issues he must deal with.

How he deals with them, as well as establishing a culture where future issues are swiftly dealt with, could well determine his party’s longevity in the role they’ve courted for 16 years.

Three days before this year’s state election, Stewart Johnston – the son of a resident abused at the disgraced Oakden nursing home – endorsed the Liberals in one of the campaign’s most compelling advertisements.

Lasting just 15 seconds, and set against dramatic music, Mr Johnston spelled out his frustration with then-premier Jay Weatherill.

“My mother was abused and neglected. Labor failed to stop it and now they think they’ll get away with it,” Mr Johnston said. “I’ve had enough, and I’ve had enough of you too, Jay. That’s why this week I’m voting Liberal.”

Stewart Johnston.

Just three months later, Mr Johnston gave Mr Marshall one of his first post-election whacks.

Mr Johnston was promised by Mr Weatherill that a process to claim compensation for the trauma inflicted on families of Oakden families would be as smooth and quick as possible. Three reports – by the chief psychiatrist, a Senate committee and the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption – have all painted horrifying pictures about the abuse and neglect that occurred at the facility.

With the evidence so clear-cut, Mr Weatherill sensibly removed the limitations that prevent families claiming compensation more than one year after the alleged incident, and pledged a process that would avoid putting the families through the wringer again.

It’s one of the few times the former government adequately managed the Oakden scandal.

With the path ahead already determined by his predecessor, Mr Marshall – perhaps fuelled by optimism about how fast the cogs of government machinery tick – made the same commitments to Oakden families.

Multiple families of Oakden residents told The Advertiser this week that Mr Marshall had promised compensation offers would be made “in weeks, not months”.

More than two months later, and with families feeling like they’d been fed another glib promise that would never materialise, Mr Johnston spoke up in the pages of this newspaper.

By doing so, he proved true to his word that he’d fight governments of any colour if they didn’t deliver aged care reform as promised.

For the Government, it’s a shot across the bow. It’s the first time they’ve lost skin in a battle where they have a serious advantage over Labor.

Mr Marshall went to the election pledging that not only would the Oakden scandal be fixed completely, but vowed that an issue like it would never happen under his watch.

Since the election, they’ve taken active steps to keep Oakden families in the loop – writing to them about the Government’s proposed Adult Safeguarding Unit and inviting them to a meeting with University of South Australia professor Wendy Lacey about legislation they’ve helped to draft.

Keeping the Oakden families up to date reduces the chances of it claiming more political scalps after ICAC Commissioner Bruce Lander essentially ended former Labor minister Leesa Vlahos’ career with savage criticism of the way she handled, or didn’t handle, the Oakden saga.

Families of victims of the Oakden scandal are seeking compensation. Picture: Tait Schmaal

There’s no indication the compensation issue was any more than an isolated incident – mostly caused by a new Premier making assurances that a weighty bureaucracy and complex legal framework couldn’t deliver.

It was almost certainly not helped by the fact the Government has been slow to hire its full complement of political staffers, leaving key decision makers with too-heavy workloads.

It’s more a flesh wound than a life-threatening injury for a Government rightly buoyant about improving business confidence and unemployment statistics trending the right way.

But the Government has made significant promises about Oakden and aged care. It needs to fully implement all the recommendations of the ICAC and chief psychiatrist reports.

It’s also pledged to create a facility for patients with severe dementia at the site of the Repatriation General Hospital – but that’s complicated by negotiations with ACH Group, which signed a deal with the former government to significantly overhaul the site.

And there’s still plenty to be resolved, too. Families have yet to hear whether inquests will be held into their loved ones’ deaths. State Coroner Mark Johns has long maintained that he has not been given any specific resources to hold inquests into deaths at the facility.

Eight questions from The Advertiser sent in mid-May about how the Government would manage the challenges posed by Oakden going forward have yet to receive a response.

This poses a huge test for Mr Marshall. The Government must adequately clean up the issues of the past to be in a position where South Australians can believe that a similar issue won’t rear its head in the future.