Back in 2019, Royal Commissioners examining the quality and safety of Australia's aged care system summed up their interim report with a single word: Neglect.

They outlined dreadful deficiencies in the care and safety of nursing home residents, including over-reliance on chemical constraints, widespread malnutrition, inadequate wound care and, in some cases, outright abuse of residents.

The system, the two Commissioners said, was “sad and shocking'' and “diminishes Australia as a nation''.

It is extraordinary that more than two years later, little has changed.

Indeed, the Covid pandemic pushed an already broken system to the brink. The virus has ravaged aged care facilities because the Morrison-Joyce Government failed to protect them by providing enough early vaccinations, rapid antigen tests and PPE equipment.

As workers joined residents on the sick list, the staff shortage became so severe that vulnerable residents were locked in their rooms, not fed or cleaned and left to lie in soiled bedding. Wound dressings were left unchanged.

Tragically, Covid has taken more than 1000 lives of aged care facility residents since the start of this year.

Every life lost is a tragedy. We owe our parents and grandparents safety and care in their final years.

It is time to protect ageing and vulnerable Australians.

They must be safe, properly fed and provided with the medical care and support they need to live in dignity.

A Labor Government will start tackling this crisis by putting nurses back into aged care facilities.

We'll make it law that every nursing home in the country has a registered nurse on the premises at all times. This will give residents and their families greater confidence that if they fall ill, qualified care will be readily at hand.

It will also reduce unnecessary emergency department visits for aged care facility residents.

We'll also mandate a minimum of 215 minutes of care every day for every patient - in line with the final recommendations of the Royal Commission.

That means more support for activities like showering and dressing, much greater emotional security for residents and less stress on staff.

We must also invest in the skills of carers. We need more staff, better training and greater job security. We'll offer fee-free TAFE courses for aged care workers and create new university places to train up more nurses.

We'll also back a pay rise for aged care workers through a submission to the independent Fair Work Commission's ongoing review of the sector.

Transparency and accountability are also critical. We must create a tough civil and criminal penalty scheme, including compensation, to deal with dodgy nursing facility owners who fail to provide high quality and safe care.

And it's not just aged care facilities that need support.

More than 68,429 Australians who have been approved to receive Federal funding packages to help support them in their homes, have not received that funding at their approved level.

Labor's plan to end the aged care crisis will cost $2.5 billion, excluding the cost of the yet-to-be-finalised Fair Work Commission case.

It is a level of investment that Scott Morrison has refused to provide during nearly a decade in office. Indeed, Mr Morrison seems to be arguing that we simply cannot afford to treat ageing Australians with dignity.

The Federal Government has exclusive responsibility for aged care. But for too long, this current government has failed to step up to that responsibility.

As with so many other areas of government administration, the Government's response to emerging problems is not to fix them but to try to blame someone else.

The neglect identified by the Royal Commission is Mr Morrison's neglect.

More than a year after the Royal Commission ended, more than half its 148 recommendations have been ignored or not properly implemented. The integrity of our aged care system is not something that we can just ignore. Protecting our parents and grandparents is not something we can just dismiss because it costs money.

Older Australians helped build our nation. They raised us. They paid their taxes. They did the right thing by our country.

We should do the right thing by them. They deserve dignity and care.

In the final report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care, Commissioner Tony Pagone noted that in his first public hearing, an indigenous man living in an aged care facility giving evidence sought permission to ask a question.

The witness asked: I've sat with Royal Commissions into deaths in custody. I've sat with the Bringing Them Home hearing; right? And out of all of them, hardly anything gets done, and is this one going to be the same?

If Labor is successful in the upcoming federal election, we will repair the broken aged care system.

The neglect must end. It's an issue of simple human decency.
 

This opinion piece was first published in The Daily Telegraph on Friday, 8 April 2022.