The former Liberal Prime Minister has waded into the criticism of the Federal Government’s aged care response, saying that the Morrison Government has failed to develop a plan to deal with aged care outbreaks during the pandemic and to take responsibility for the sector.
Speaking to the ABC, Mr Turnbull said he was “very surprised there wasn’t a very thorough plan to deal with aged care facilities,” adding that the coronavirus risk in those facilities was “not something that has come out of left field”.
“It deserved a lot more thorough, rigorous thinking in advance. It may well have had that, but it hasn’t been communicated,” he said.
The former PM then said it would be “unfair to single Richard Colbeck out,” saying that the Aged Care Minister is “a friend of mine”.
“This is a whole of Government issue,” he stated. “This is not exactly a sort of niche issue that has just been dealt with by a Minister without much oversight or involvement from the Cabinet or the Prime Minister.”
“This was a front and centre issue, so yes, Richard is the Minister, but everybody in the Government should have been very alert to this issue, the Health Minister, the Prime Minister, everybody, State Governments as well, even though it is a Federal Government responsibility.”
Instead, Mr Turnbull said there have been a number of efforts to “blame-shift”.
“It is pretty obvious that aged care premises, facilities, were going to be a very serious problem, and they have proved to be everywhere in the world. And I don’t get, I didn’t get the impression that anybody was stepping up and taking responsibility for that, particularly after Newmarch House demonstrated the nature of the problem. But again... Politicians rush to good news and flee from bad news generally.”
The Australian public appears to agree – see this story.
