Aged rage

With 11 new coronavirus deaths recorded in Victoria overnight – all in nursing homes – it is to be hoped that the combination of pandemic and royal commission will result in an entirely new model for aged care in this country. Victoria today marked its 30^th day with triple-digit cases, and the state now has 1186 active cases in aged care, which Premier Daniel Andrews said “remains a very challenging setting for us”. Nationally, according to yesterday’s official figures reported in The Australian [$], 65 per cent of the country’s total 221 coronavirus deaths have been in aged-care facilities – the vast bulk of those in Victoria. The rage at such figures is palpable, and is evident in a story in the Nine newspapers about the hideously opulent Toorak mansion recently sold by Peter and Areti Arvanitis, part-owners of Heritage Care, which operates the COVID-struck Epping Gardens (an aged-care home that has suddenly been found to have breached regulatory requirements). In a discouraging sign, the newly appointed secretary of the Department of Health, Brendan Murphy, protected the aged-care operators in his evidence to the COVID-19 Senate select committee, refusing to disclose which facilities were suffering from second-wave outbreaks except in camera, even though the Victorian government releases a state list. He was backed up by Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck. As press gallery veteran Michelle Grattan tweeted, “This surely can’t be justified.”  

Even conservative Liberal backbencher Concetta Fierravanti-Wells is angry. David Crowe revealed this morning that Fierravanti-Wells, writing in a submission to the aged-care royal commission, said that the Abbott government (including then social services minister Scott Morrison) “sowed the seeds of the predicament that the aged-care sector is facing today”. Fierravanti-Wells had held the aged-care portfolio in opposition and developed plans to reform the sector based on Productivity Commission recommendations, but her policies were dumped when the Abbott government was elected and she was shifted into multicultural affairs. 

Labor leader Anthony Albanese today cited Fierravanti-Wells’ critique and the broader crisis in aged care as one of many reasons why the federal parliament needs to reconvene. It would mean there could be “further scrutiny about the range of issues, including: Why weren’t the lessons learned from Newmarch, which occurred months ago in New South Wales? Why is it that there hasn’t been adequate training across aged-care facilities about the use of PPE? Why is it that there hasn’t been a national audit of all nursing homes, aged-care facilities, about access to personal protective equipment?” Greens leader Adam Bandt tweeted that if Albanese was frustrated at the cancellation of parliament, “maybe Labor shouldn’t have agreed with the Liberals to cancel this fortnight’s sitting. The Greens are trying to hold the gov to account & we’d like Labor’s help, but you keep siding with the Libs.” 

Elsewhere in the pandemic, Social Services Minister Anne Ruston clarified that the $1500 paid pandemic leave policy announced by the PM yesterday only applies in Victoria, Education Minister Dan Tehan flagged further announcements will be made tomorrow on support for childcare operators in Victoria, retail sales jumped 2.7 per cent in the June quarter as restrictions eased in other states, and the Reserve Bank kept interest rates on hold despite speculation they might cut in the wake of Victoria’s shift to stage-four lockdown, even issuing another glass-half-full statement on the outlook: 

The Australian economy is going through a very difficult period and is experiencing the biggest contraction since the 1930s. As difficult as this is, the downturn is not as severe as earlier expected and a recovery is now underway in most of Australia. This recovery is, however, likely to be both uneven and bumpy, with the coronavirus outbreak in Victoria having a major effect on the Victorian economy. Given the uncertainties about the overall outlook, the Board considered a range of scenarios at its meeting. In the baseline scenario, output falls by 6 per cent over 2020 and then grows by 5 per cent over the following year. In this scenario, the unemployment rate rises to around 10 per cent later in 2020 due to further job losses in Victoria and more people elsewhere in Australia looking for jobs.

Deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth was holding a press conference as The Monthly Today hit deadline. Guardian Australia is live-blogging the presser here.

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