Richard Colbeck wants to stay despite aged-care pain

Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck says he wants to retain his portfolio ahead of the looming Morrison government cabinet reshuffle.

Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck. Picture: Sean Davey.

Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck says he wants to retain his portfolio ahead of the looming Morrison government cabinet reshuffle despite the sector experiencing enormous difficulties during the pandemic, including the deaths of almost 700 nursing home residents.

The independent reports into the deadly outbreaks at St Basil’s and Epping Gardens in Victoria, which cost $211,778, are yet to be released nearly four weeks after its authors, Acumenity Australia, completed them and three weeks after they were due to be released on November 30.

Senator Colbeck on Wednesday confirmed the reports would be released by Christmas as he doubled down on his wish to remain in charge of a sector being heavily scrutinised by a royal commission.

“I will not publicly discuss my private conversations with the Prime Minister but I have indi­cated publicly that I am keen to continue the role that I am undertaking,” Senator Colbeck said.

“The Prime Minister will announce the new ministry at a time of his choosing and I look forward to that process occurring,”

The Aged Care Royal Commission used its coronavirus special report to recommend that significant outbreaks be scrutinised by independent reviews with the results “promptly” disseminated to the sector.

Senator Colbeck said the reports’ release had been delayed due to some “procedural fairness issues” and the need to run their findings by stakeholders first.

It comes as Scott Morrison said he would inject an additional $1bn into the aged-care sector, supporting 10,000 new home care packages and bolstering nursing facilities that were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Opposition aged-care spokeswoman Julie Collins slammed the announcement, declaring older Australians deserve better than a “drip feed” of new funding.

“Over three years, more than 30,000 older Australians died waiting for home care that had ­already been approved,” she said. “Older Australians waiting for high-level home care are waiting almost three years (for) the package they have been approved for.”

National Seniors chief executive John McCallum said he was concerned too many people had been waiting for more than a year for funding while tens of thousands of Australians had died waiting for a high-level Commonwealth Home Care Package.

“We learnt from the Royal Commission into Aged Care, Quality and Safety that in one 12-month period, 16,000 older Australians died waiting for a package,” Professor McCallum said. “We were also told that over the same period a further 13,000 older Australians who had been approved for a high-level home care package were shifted into an aged-care facility against their wishes because they had to wait for their package to be delivered.”

Council of the Ageing chief executive Ian Yates said the system wasn’t working. Many people were waiting more than a year for their package and lots of money was being wasted. “It is vitally important that older Australians are afforded the respect and dignity of being supported to live in their own home as long as they are able to with proper supports,” he said.

Leading Age Services Australia’s acting chief advocate, Tim Hicks, said that while the Morrison government’s package was significant, more was needed and the royal commission was right to say the waitlists were cruel.

“We have had a 100,000-plus home care queue for three years now and this is just another down payment on the much broader challenges,” he said.

Senator Colbeck said the government was focused on getting waiting list numbers down in a responsible way. “The investment that we have made I think shows that we are genuinely working hard to achieve that,” he said. “$3.3bn since the interim report last year, 50,000 packages – that is a significant investment but we need to grow the sector carefully.”