Goosebumps at news of royal commission

It was an emotional moment when Charli Darragh heard the news this week of a royal commission into Australia's aged care system.

Marie Darragh and her daughter Charli Darragh at St Andrews nursing home in Ballina. Picture: Contributed

FOUR years ago Charli Darragh's mother was murdered in a north coast nursing home and she has been advocating for vulnerable residents ever since.

So it was an emotional moment when she heard the news this week of a royal commission into Australia's aged care system.

"Hundreds and thousands of us have been screaming for help and we were drowning but now it's like we've come up to the surface - we've come up from drowning," she said.

Charli lived in Coffs Harbour for 25 years managing a number of motels, moving away in the early 1980s.

Her mother Marie Darragh was murdered in a residential aged care facility at Ballina in May, 2014.

In November, 2016, a NSW Supreme Court jury found nurse Megan Haines guilty of injecting Marie and another woman, Isabella Spencer, 77, with lethal doses of insulin just hours after she learned they had made complaints against her.

Ms Haines is appealing the outcome.

Charli's grief was tinged with guilt as she was the one who urged her mother to make that complaint.

"(Haines) had only done six shifts (at the nursing home) but I never got off the phone without Mum telling me what an evil woman she was, a rough woman who treated her and her friends terribly," she said.

"Mum was a bit frightened to complain but I said, 'What's she going to do?" 

Charli Darragh at the grave site of her mother, Marie Darragh.

Following her mother's death Charli established the Angels for the Elderly foundation pushing for CCTV cameras to be placed in facilities.

She is a spokesperson for a coalition of grassroots aged care advocates known as Elderly Abuse Now who last year ramped up their calls for a royal commission into residential aged care.

Their renewed calls in August last year came in the wake of a ABC 7.30 report's two part expose of horrific examples of poor care and standards in accredited aged care facilities.

Speaking at the time Charli said the system was in chaos.

"We've seen review after review take place for a number of years. Nothing changes," she said.

"Only a royal commission will give aged care residents, families, relatives, aged carers, whistleblowers and nursing staff the opportunity to tell it like it is, without fear or favour.

"Only then will we uncover the levels of abuse and poor care that is taking place and highlight what needs to change."

The royal commission, announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday, will focus on residential and in-home aged care for seniors but will also cover care for young people with disabilities who live in aged care homes.

The government has drawn some criticism with the Prime Minister's announcement coming just hours before the ABC was to air the first of two Four Corners episodes investigating scandals in the sector.

The Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt has also been forced to explain why he had told Four Corners just weeks ago that a royal commission was not needed, as it would only tell the government what it already knew.

But for Ms Darragh, she just wants the government to get on with the task at hand.

"I got goosebumps. I believe he (Mr Morrison) has empathy and compassion. He has got a big job in front of him."