A taskforce? A fucking taskforce?
That’s the response from Scott Morrison and Health Minister Greg Hunt to the unfolding disaster that’s killing hundreds of seniors, has locked down tens of thousands and has left the sector with only enough staff for 75% of the shifts required.
The plea from the sector for the Australian Defence Force to be sent in to help offset the staff shortages that have left many isolated residents without basic services continues to be ignored. At least Defence Minister Peter Dutton signalled this morning that it could happen — undermining the prime minister’s rejection of the idea two weeks ago.
The “taskforce” wasn’t even announced yesterday by Morrison or Hunt but by Department of Health bureaucrat and chief medical officer Paul Kelly, who “committed” to “setting up a specific taskforce in the department to look at that and to do everything we can to get more detail about the issues”.
So a bunch of bureaucrats from the same department that has presided over two botched rollouts, the rapid antigen test debacle and the unfolding carnage in aged care will “look at it” and “get more detail”.
Such a pointless reaction to most policy challenges would be laughable. In this case, as the death toll mounts in our nursing homes, it’s sickening and enraging.
And increasingly it looks like a wilful negligence that speaks of a decision to let people regarded as expendable die — after all, Hunt and Morrison have insisted this week, most of them were going to die anyway.
Why are Morrison and Hunt unwilling to do anything significant about the aged care disaster? Surely even the political cost would be enough to force a government obsessed with appearances to take action?
In fact there’s a horrific political calculation — one that most politicians understand — at the heart of their refusal.
While everyone remembers Bronwyn Bishop and kerosene baths from the 1990s, that scandal was atypical in forcing a government to intervene in aged care.
Aged care generates headlines and induces plenty of hand-wringing and complaints — that’s why so many dozens of reports have been written over the decades — but doesn’t shift votes significantly. That’s because, at any one time, there are only a small number of households exposed to what is happening.
This is the horrible maths: at the moment there are about 240,000 Australian aged care residents. They’re not evenly distributed, of course, but for argument’s sake assume that the households they’re from are distributed across Australia — that’s across 150 electorates. That’s about 1600 households in each electorate.
More than half of those already don’t vote for the Coalition, and are unlikely to shift. The number of Liberal-voting households affected by aged care issues is probably about 700. So maybe 1400 people might be in a position to change their vote in anger at what they’re seeing. Then factor in nearly half of them are in seats already held by Labor.
It’s a crude portrait, and the parties would have their own polling showing in much finer detail which seats where aged care will be a real issue. But it illustrates how the transient nature of aged care means people are exposed to it for only a limited time and then move on.
But the 1990s scandal also illustrates that when aged care does break out from being an electorally limited issue and starts dominating the political cycle, it can wreak havoc on governments.
As the death toll mounts and the government’s disgraceful negligence becomes more apparent, that may well be the fate of Morrison and Hunt. The ADF should start preparing for an intervention.
“lives are at stake today and he is just obsessed with petty political point scoring’ (Gladys Berejiklian).
The Omicron corona-virus strain episode largely confirms the above statement; this variant of COVID19 first appeared in Australia in late November 2021. By this stage the World Health Organization has listed Omicron as a variant of concern and said’ it could take several weeks to know if there were significant changes in transmissibility, severity or implications for COVID vaccines, tests and treatments’.
Morrison and Hunt choose to ignore this red light in their pursuit of giving Australians their ‘freedom’ from government mandates and win votes at the next election. This poor policy choice has cost many Australians the loss of loved ones.- particularly the loss elder loved ones. Morrison and Hunt bear responsibility from these foreseeable consequences.
Now the best that these two sub-humans can offer is that most of the aged patients who have since died since we have opened up were in palliative care – read here, so what they were going to die anyway. What a Christian attitude from our god-faring Prime piece of trash. Then people wonder why Grace Tame cannot bear being in the man’s company.
And we can now add further success for Morrison, as of the end of January 2022 the four (4) Nordic nations of Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland were also recording lower overall death rates than Australia. So as well as most developed Asian nations doing better than us in stemming COVID deaths so too are European nations So obviously Australia is doing very well in a race we have no desire to be among the leaders but thanks to Daggy Dad’s incompetence we are.
So memo to the clowns who voted for Scott aka ‘the Psycho’ last election: ‘Fool me once, shame on you: fool me twice, shame on me’,
How fortunate are Scumbag and Ghunt that politicians are immune from WHS laws.
Imagine them having to face an industrial court and explain their utter failure of duty of care with all of these preventable deaths and all of the needless suffering of the elderly and disadvantaged.
How fortunate are Scumbag and Ghunt that politicians are immune from the Trade Practices Act.
France should give it a go over the Subs – after all THEY have nuclear too and territory in the Pacific. It’s never made sense ScoMo’s fart bubble on this sneaky decision.
Does it meet the legal definition of murder?
Well well well said.
And after all the carry-on about the Pink Batts “disaster”
All of which was totally preventable by following one rule, especially when working in confined spaces i.e. Turn the bloody main power switch off. No-one would have died. No power, no electrocution. Simple.
Or even read the instructions written on every pink bat packet! But remember the furore. Here we have 560 aged care persons needlessly dead in one month, Scomo can barely bring himself to call it a crisis in his presser today and where is the sound of furore from the opposition? Pathetic.
Enlighten me, please. What is written on every pink batts packet?
The bats i bought 15 or so years ago had both installation and safety instructions. I’m assuming that wasn’t an isolated case.
The “disaster” that insulated one million Australian homes? but cost the same number of actual lives as previously lost prior to the program which is about 1/10th the death rate / 1000 installation as prior
I right away, when Glady’s turned down his proposal to stand in Warringa, knew what the reason was. She wanted nothing more to have to do with him. She knew that if she did, she was forever after his puppet to dangle.
His lot know what he is doing and and are clearly going along with the show. Except for the ‘brave’ psycho leak there is no real spine among the lot. Time to pull down the tent, along with the Ringmaster.
Congratulation Lionheart. One of the best posts I have read on Crikey and deserving of the number of positive votes.
It’s a long post but every word is essential . No attempt to show the readers your ability to win at scrabble.
Thank You
After the “Barnaby leak” today ” I suspect there would be few people in Australia who believe the PM knows the meaning of the truth .
The most remarkable thing I can see about the Barnaby leak is how he could see just what Morrison is and say so when he was on the backnbenches, but the instant Morrison gives him a job he decides that, on the contrary, Morrison is a paragon of politics and all-round wonderful human being. It’s sort of miraculous.
Shortly after the last election when Morrison said he would “burn for us”and decided to burn on a beach in Hawaii I predicted he would not be the Liberal leader at the next election or if he was he would cop a hiding
.
My thought was based on the secrets of his past as head of Tourism NZ and Tourisim Australia and the toes he had trodden on .I remember Tammy Frasers reference to a ” lying little rodent with very few friends ” Could the disciple be following in the mold of his sponsor? Is this the start of the finish? How much more is about to be tipped from the bucket onto the PM?
Thank you for your earlier comments and I sure hope that you are right.
No not really Sinking Ship Rat,say, what kind of name is that anyway? But when you come to think about it I think we will be seeing increasing signs of spooked rats desperately trying to desert the good ship ‘Lying Psycho’ as the election draws nearer.
Barnaby aka beetroot face – a play on ‘scare- face Capone is simply doing all that he can to cling to power and not be doomed to occupy the soul-destroying opposition benches – even if this means crawling back to someone he obviously finds contemptible and put on a comical show of unity.
With mainstream media,international leaders, and now his own party from his 2 IC down calling him for what he is I smell a mutiny.
At least the bot will free us from “Approval Pending ” when we accurately describe people for their lack of morals, ethics, integrity, truthfulness etc which appear to be the main skills rquired of failed advertising hacks
You can treat the aged as non-people because they don’t affect votes. You treat refugees as non-people because doing so wins votes. Either way you are an amoral monster.
For the Coalition all lives are clearly not of equal value and deaths are just a matter of calculated costs. These people would be well suited to running concentration camps, oops forgot, they do.
My rusted-on-LNP-voting mum, 81 and with a bad heart, doesn’t live in aged care but is still terrified, in general, of the blase attitude to the deaths of the elderly by this government – so I don’t think it’s just the people being directly affected who will change their vote.
If you are part of a group that tends to feel vulnerable at the best of times, watching your government act this way to your peers during a time of need, is a real eye opener as to how disposable you are, and what it means to elect a party that, when the chips are down, doesn’t care that much about whether you live or die.
It’s a major reality check, and a big vote loser beyond just those involved in the world of aged care imo.
Anybody remember when Grey Power was formed in response to some past Political skullgugery affecting the elderly?
As I recall it caused a rapid change in Govt. attitude.
Time to do it again fellow Seniors?
great idea, how do we get started
Needs someone with more commitment and get up and go than me SR.
In a past life I was involved with movements trying to arouse people to overcome industrial exploitation,
all that ever happened was me getting my backside kicked by both sides.
However Grey Power worked before, and it could again. I seem to remember that it was financial issues last time. That issue gains more traction with people than whether Mom and Dad who they have dumped in some “Nursing Home”is treated well or not.
Very common “…getting my backside kicked by both sides.” in many arenas.
A prophet is without regard in their own land or worse, a’la Ibsen.
Ungrateful lot, people.
Has it ever occurred, Glenn, that this fellow and his likeminded cohorts are not really all that concerned about the votes, they are so confident in “God’s will” that they will win and even if that doesn’t happen they have plans in place to deal with that, or have we learned nothing from the Jan 6th dress rehearsal.
The difference is that more and more people are moving into the demographic in which they either have parents in or close to needing aged care, AND are looking at their own plans for aged care. It might swing more votes than the Government expects, especially that they keep making clear just how little they care, and how privatisation of aged care hasn’t improved either the quality or availability of care.
BUPA British United Providential Association, owned indirectly by the 10 lords of London, allowed into the private health insurance field and then into the For Profit, private aged care providers by our favourite lying little rodent.
This company has featured in a prominent position for most of the royal commissions, inquiries and such over the years.
Before anyone decides on another RC can we spend the money on aged care, nationalize BUPA’s aged residential accommodation and then start from there?
Max employment also.
Absolutely correct in your last sentence, ratty. NOTHING will be fixed in age ‘care’ until we get the profit makers out of the sector, and make all facilities government owned and operated!!
And rescind the Aged Care “free market” profit-propelled free-for-all introduced by Howard in ’97.
Great openers ratty.
Visited a XXXX previously mentioned nursing/aged care facility recently only person I could find to ask directions was the husband of a resident, he was in tears as he explained his level of guilt at being unable to afford to remove his wife from “this terrible place”
Finally found a staff member who started to give directions only to run of mid-sentence to respond to an emergency. Number of beds well over 100 staff observed in a 90minute visit 1
Try that level of duty of care in any other workplace.
Pff, spend money on nationalising BUPA’s Australian assets – seize them.
Agree – the private ‘hospitals’ have proliferated with all that free taxpayer money from subsidising private health care which then allows the for-profit industry to raise its charges each time.
Imagine if those funds had been put directly into Medicare.
Maybe seeing how eugenics has underpinned too much radical right libertarian policy being adopted by the LNP…..
Just what I logged in to say, Caths. I’m in my early 60s with a family history of Alzheimers, single and with one child who is still only 18 and shouldn’t be burdened with caring for her parents. The thought of not being able to look after myself and being imprisoned in an aged care centre is frankly terrifying. There may not be that many voters currently experiencing the aged care debacle first hand but there are many, many more who are starting to fear it as their future. That vote needs to be leveraged.
My mother (Alzheimers) in the UK has just had her at home care terminated at less than 2 weeks notice (by a letter to her, not my sister who is her power of attorney – could easily have gone unnoticed) because the providers have had to shut down due to lack of staff. My sister has (alongside her full time job) called 30+ agencies and none have capacity. Several of them are also closing for the same reasons. Australia is heading the same way. Labor should campaign on this. Fear works!
How is it that Hunt has the data to state that ( from memory) 60% of recent aged care deaths were in ‘palliative care’. but no data on the vax status of the same cohort?
Even more remarkable when you learn that most aged care homes do not formally use a ‘palliative’ designation.
Agreed. The suggestion by Prof. Kelly was a throw-away line.
As you get older your prospects of death increase. We know this.
Kelly’s proclamation must have caused alarm in an already alarmed aged care community.
It’s tantamount to saying ‘Just go quietly, your time is up.’
The terminology used when my Mum was in an Aged Care facility, eleven years ago was “Ageing in Place” – meaning they would “Care” (and I use that term loosely) for her, in that particular room, in that particular Dementia Unit/Wing , irrespective of further comorbidities arising, until her death.
Said, privately run (Christian based) Facility, attempted to change their tune when, due to their incompetence and negligence, she became wheelchair bound after falling on a slippery floor, fracturing (severely) her femur and then informing Ambulance service it was , “Not an Emergency” – in turn leaving her lying on a cold, hard floor for well over an hour (I know because I was there within 15 minutes of receiving the call) until horrified Ambulance officers attended and rushed her to hospital for emergency surgery ( Mum’s second “accident” within a year).
The issue became one that Mum would be a burden on staff, having to wheel a wheelchair around, help her in/out of the chair for toileting etcetera. Rather, Management thought the “nursing home” would be better suited, despite it being under-staffed and under-regulated much like the rest of the place.
When Mum was told they wanted to move her elsewhere, she was distraught. She had Alzheimer’s, but still understood very well what they were suggesting and cried constantly, begging me to “do something”.
Having pulled out their Signed Contract reinforcing their, Ageing in Place declaration, I was able to suggest that they may be in breach of their own Contract, and would seek legal advice. Fortunately, they immediately agreed that Mum should remain where she was for the remainder of her life (another tortuous sixteen months) but they made sure that their staff complained to me personally on at least a weekly basis that I/she had created a living hell for them all with the extra work.
Not once did they say that I’d taken some of their load/burden from them by taking Mum’s washing home daily and doing it myself for her entire stay, including her bed linen, blankets and quilts – but the decision was mine to make, anyway, in part after I witnessed how the washing was done in the Unit, with heavily soiled infection ridden clothes all piled in together with everyone else’s.
I have digressed, but this not-for-profit organisation, run by some very wealthy and so-called elite members of society in the name of Christian “care” for its Elder Australians was so far removed from its espousals of kindness and care, to actually be bordering on criminal negligence in my eye, much like our current political leaders.
As I’ve remarked often – nothing has changed in these dreadful places in the eleven years since my mother died.
And this hypocritical alleged Christian shows us the callous bastard he really is by sitting on reports that may improve care and refusing underpaid staff a weekly pay increase the equivalent to his daily meal allowance because it may reduce the profits of the nursing homes he is responsible for.