Coronavirus: Tensions flare as Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck is grilled by Labor’s Katy Gallagher

Labor’s grilling of the Aged Care Minister during a senate hearing led to a series of heated exchanges | WATCH

Senator Richard Colbeck and Labor Senator Katy Gallagher.

Victoria’s COVID-19 aged care crisis continues to affect 126 nursing homes across the state more than five weeks after the first resident died on June 11, with almost half still managing five or more active cases.

New information provided to the Senate COVID-19 committee on Friday lists 60 Victorian nursing homes with at least five cases of either staff or residents who have the virus.

The committee heard 254 nursing home residents and four people receiving in-home aged care have died of the virus during the pandemic.

And there are still 1732 active cases linked to aged care settings in Victoria, Daniel Andrews confirmed on Friday.

The largest outbreaks remain at Heritage Care’s Epping Gardens facility with 209 cases and St Basil’s Homes for the Aged in Fawkner with 193 cases.

The scale of the ongoing crisis in Victoria and the difficulty of bringing it under control is creating an economic and political chain reaction.

Scott Morrison pledged $170 million in new federal funding on Friday to help aged care facilities combat COVID-19, bringing total support for the sector during the pandemic to over $1 billion.

The additional funding will be used to bolster workforce retention and a range of other preparedness measures, as well as supporting the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre’s work.

Federal Health Secretary Professor Brendan Murphy. Picture: Gary Ramage

National Cabinet also discussed the sector’s issues on Friday, with the states and territories agreeing to recreate emergency response centres similar to the VACRC should they be needed.

And aged care minister Richard Colbeck faced hostile questioning in the Senate committee hearing on Friday, where he clashed with Labor Senator Katy Gallagher over whether the federal government response had been adequate.

In a series of testy exchanges, Senator Colbeck reacted sharply when Senator Gallagher asked why the government had been “absent” on aged care as COVID-19 infected nursing homes across Victoria.

“I reject the assertion in the question, Chair, In fact I find it offensive,” Senator Colbeck said.

“The government wasn’t absent. The government has been there every single step of the way providing every single resource it could muster in the interests of these people.

“I think it‘s quite an offensive … assertion that you make,” he said.

Senator Colbeck also struggled for the answer to how many nursing home residents had so far died and how many were currently infected, before an official stepped in to provide the response.

Scott Morrison defended his minister’s performance, saying the hard work he had done in the sector had saved lives.

“I know those issues are not far from his mind on a minute-by minute basis,” the Prime Minister said.

“I am sure the minister regrets not being able to bring those figures immediately to mind. On occasion I can’t bring figures to mind.”

Senator Colbeck told the committee no country in the world had managed to keep the virus out of aged care facilities if there was a significant community outbreak, but acknowledged the government could have done better in keeping nursing home residents safe from COVID-19.

“We haven’t got it right. We apologise for that. We are not happy that some things haven’t worked out as we might have hoped,” Senator Colbeck said.

“It has cost lives and that is an absolute tragedy in every single circumstance.”

“There were things that we could have done better. I acknowledge that,” he said.

Federal health secretary Brendan Murphy told the committee Victoria’s health system had been overwhelmed by the aged care outbreaks and was not as prepared as NSW to handle COVID-19.

“Unfortunately the Victorian public health response was unable to control the outbreaks in the way that NSW has done,” Professor Murphy said.