Defence Minister says ADF can be called in to help aged care fiasco

Defence force personnel could be sent to help aged care facilities battling Omicron outbreaks that continue to devastate residents and their families as Labor continues to call for the resignation of the Aged Care Services minister.

Labor Leader Anthony Albanese repeated his call on Friday for Richard Colbeck to be sacked, with nearly half of the country’s aged care facilities battling outbreaks, and the death toll among residents nearing 600.

Labor has repeated calls for Aged Care Services minister Richard Colbeck to resign.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the government has already helped the sector with 78,000 additional shifts, but the Commonwealth would do more.

“There’s no limit on what we’re prepared to invest here to make a bad situation...better,” he said on Nine’s Today show.

When asked if he would bring the Australian Defence Force in, Mr Dutton said it was being considered.

“If that is what is required to fix this problem and to provide dignity to these people, that is what we will do,” he said.

It’s a departure from Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s comments two weeks ago, when he played down the idea of bringing in the defence to assist.

“I just want to dispel this notion that the Defence Forces can come in and replace workforces all across the country, whether it be in aged care or health care or transport or in food production or anything like that,” Mr Morrison said in the middle of January.

Mr Albanese said aged care residents and workers deserved a better minister.

“This is a crisis in the sector. And this Minister has failed before. And he continues to fail. What do you have to do to lose your job under this Government? If Richard Colbeck had any integrity, he would resign,” he said on ABC Breakfast.

Mr Colbeck faced a senate COVID committee hearing earlier this week where he defended his decision to attend a three-day test cricket match as coronavirus spread through facilities, infecting residents and workers.

But the Aged Care Services minister has not appeared on television or radio this week. Finance Minister Simon Birmingham was asked on Sky News why Mr Colbeck was not facing the media.

“The minister I know is engaged in daily briefings, discussions, making sure all of those different logistics and supply chain issues are continuously being addressed that the disruptions that occur to them,” he said.

The federal government says 99 per cent of aged care facilities have been visited for booster clinics, but the senate COVID-19 committee heard on Wednesday that about a third of all double-vaccinated residents were yet to receive a booster.

A situation report by aged care peak body group the Australian Aged Care Collaboration said as of January 28, 47 per cent of facilities had active outbreaks, and nearly 13,600 staff caught the virus in just over a month to January 28 this year.

Chief executive of Aged and Community Services Australia Paul Sadler said the sector needs more support from the government.

“What we have all learned is a transmissible disease, in the way Omicron has been, can overwhelm all of our preparedness very quickly,” he said. “Our traditional modes of preparing ...clearly weren’t enough.”