Scott Morrison ‘did not learn from the earlier aged-care outbreak’
Scott Morrison has rejected Labor’s claims to ‘stop passing the buck’ and take the blame for the coronavirus outbreak in aged-care homes in Melbourne.
Scott Morrison has rejected Labor’s claim that the federal Coalition has to “stop passing the buck” and take the blame for the outbreak of coronavirus infection and deaths in aged-care homes in Melbourne.
Anthony Albanese said on Sunday the “federal government needs to step up on the issue of aged care” and accused the Prime Minister of not learning the lessons of the outbreak in the Newmarch home in Sydney.
Evidence emerged of Victorian Health officials not passing on notice of coronavirus infections in aged-care centres for days and Victoria not using the COVIDSafe app to trace and track people who have been exposed to the virus.
The Victorian government has cited “mysterious cases” of infection as one of the reasons for the new restrictions, and the federal Opposition Leader has described the app as a multimillion-dollar dud.
“The federal government has responsibility for aged care. It can’t continue to just pass the buck. It needs to be prepared across the nation on these issues,” Mr Albanese said.
“The federal government’s responsible for regulating aged care … Newmarch, here in NSW, sent a big loud message to the federal government. And unfortunately, Scott Morrison wasn’t listening and didn’t respond.”
Labor frontbenchers also accused the federal government of being responsible for the failures in managing the outbreaks in aged care in Victoria and called for long-term changes to aged-care policy.
Labor Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers said Mr Morrison “needs to take responsibility for the horror show in aged care”.
“The Prime Minister shouldn’t be allowed to wash his hands of this the way that he’s tried to wash his hands of the Ruby Princess debacle which also cost lives. It’s time for him to take this challenge more seriously than he has to date, and not just because of what’s happened during this crisis but because of the deterioration in aged care for some time,” Mr Chalmers said.
But Mr Morrison said on Sunday night that he was not going to take part in a political row over aged care.
“Politically partisan sniping doesn’t help anyone,” he said.
Health Minister Greg Hunt has previously put the origin of the second wave in Victoria down to the failure of quarantine security that allowed the coronavirus to spread through the state.
He has also publicly congratulated the NSW health department for its extensive use of the COVIDSafe App, which detected more than 500 new contacts and 12 new cases.
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