Just when you think this government can’t get any more sneaky. In a virtually unnoticed move, the Coalition government has snuck an alarming last-minute amendment into an aged care bill before Parliament that removes the legal and human rights of aged care residents.
Category: Opinion
St Basil’s coronial inquest
Interview on Channel 9 Today show
Richard Colbeck can no longer pass the buck on the failure to protect Australians in aged care homes
Richard Colbeck can no longer pass the buck on the failure to protect Australians in aged care homes Guardian
Almost 700 deaths. Zero heads have rolled. Why? The Klaxon
“Political Stunt”: how the Budget cash splash means profit to providers over aged care reform
The federal government announced its $17.7 billion aged care budget with bells and whistles. Peak bodies for providers described it as a “big win for older people”. However, it is aged care providers, not older people, who have won.
Why were we so poorly prepared for COVID-19?
There have been three areas of major failures during the Covid-19 pandemic: hotel quarantine, aged care, and the vaccination rollout. These are all areas of Commonwealth responsibility. Scott Morrison not only failed to coordinate a national approach to quarantine and aged care but he and his colleagues sat on the sidelines providing unhelpful commentary.
Lack of financial transparency in aged care
End neo-liberal experiment: gutting of bureaucracy led to vaccine and aged care failures
Lynelle Briggs, one of the aged care royal commissioners has recommended that the federal Health Department be the major “service delivery agency” of the reforms the aged care sector so desperately needs. In the Final Report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, Briggs states: “The Australian Department of Health and Aged Care will need to step up to the requirements of a major hands-on service delivery agency if it is to lead and guide the aged care sector effectively through the reforms we recommend.”
The department simply does not have the capacity to be a “hands-on service delivery agency”. Its expertise is outsourcing.
Covid-19 aged care guidelines: ‘They’re not a national plan. This is a plan!’
Covid-19 tragedy in aged care
Passing the Buck
Passing the Buck: why Victoria’s Covid is raging in private aged care homes