No Plan PM: how government’s lack of an aged care plan cost lives

Australia has one of the highest rates in the world of deaths in residential aged care as a proportion of total Covid-19 deaths. A recent Senate inquiry noted that deaths in aged care homes “account for 74.6% of all deaths from Covid-19 in Australia”. 

Many of these deaths could have been prevented had the federal government prepared the aged sector for the pandemic. In the months since the first outbreak in aged care, the government has indulged in semantics and repeated attempts to shift the blame.

Aged Care Minister, Richard Colbeck, told a Senate estimates hearing, he did not “feel responsible” for any of the deaths.

PM’s ducking and weaving

And while Prime Minister Scott Morrison has admitted that aged care is a…