El Cheapo Aged Care: why the Coalition’s make-work schemes won’t work

What are the federal government’s priorities regarding aged care? To ensure the frail and vulnerable in aged care homes spend time surrounded by family and friends or to provide jobs for the newly unemployed due to the pandemic?

A 15-minute rapid antigen screening test is available that would allow aged care homes to do real time testing of all visitors and staff. Although not as accurate as the widely used PCR tests, rapid antigen testing in conjunction with training in infection control would give peace of mind to all when families visited their loved ones in aged care. So why has the federal government instead funded “aged care visitation assistants”?

Providers claimed they kept families out of aged care homes to protect…