Perspective: The federal government has some clear responsibilities in dealing with the pandemic. Its lapses in aged care homes are plain to see, but who is accountable?
If the stakes weren’t so high it’d be a comedy of errors. With the stakes very high indeed, it’s closer to a danse macabre.
The first stark failure is that not all aged care homes had yet vaccinated the old folks in their care. While about 85 per cent of residents nationwide had been given at least one dose, the remaining 15 per cent had no protection against COVID. That’s about 27,900 people. One low point was a painful exchange in the estimates committee where Morrison’s Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, Richard Colbeck, refused to say he was responsible for aged care vaccinations.Minister Colbeck: Well, it’s not a yes or no answer.The minister said the Commonwealth was working with the states to supply vaccines to the aged care homes, so it was a “collective responsibility”.Watt: The federal government regulates aged care.
Lynelle Briggs, former chief executive of Medicare and former commissioner of the Australian Public Service, says she has heard no credible explanation for the slowness of the vaccination program in aged care. “I did hear that they wanted people [in aged care] to get the flu vaccination first, but that’s no excuse for inattention.”
Morrison says the government has given its full response to the recommendations of Briggs’ royal commission; Briggs says “my view is that the government has room to do more, and should be doing more”.
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