Thread by @the_shb

Ok, here goes. The election's tomorrow. Somehow there are still undecided voters out there. A definitive measure of any politician's leadership is how they care for our most vulnerable citizens - so let's look at Morrison's track record on aged care. Thread #auspol #ausvotes

When Morrison came to power, he inherited a raft of recommendations to fix aged care from past inquiries, including staffing ratios, pay raise, better regulation & more financial transparency. Rather than implementing these, he called a Royal Commission #auspol #ausvotes

The Royal Commission's interim report, handed down in October 2019, recommended 3 areas of urgent action that needed to be resolved imminently: clearing the home care waitlist, young people with disabilities trapped in aged care, and chemical and physical restraint #auspol

Almost 3 years later, there are still some 60,000 older people on the home care waitlist. Some 50,000 older people have died while on the waitlist in recent years, and thousands more have had to move into aged care facilities bc they couldn't get care at home #auspol #ausvotes

Then COVID hit, and in spite of overwhelming evidence from overseas that aged care homes would be disproportionately affected by outbreaks, the Morrison government was disgracefully slow off the mark to prepare an already-cratering sector for a pandemic #auspol #ausvotes

The Morrison government made PPE training for aged care workers voluntary. It failed to secure adequate PPE. It allowed aged care providers to "self-assess" their own readiness for outbreaks. It didn't provide timely access to infection control specialists #auspol #ausvotes

Aged care providers were begging the Morrison government to release heat maps so they could know the prevalence of COVID in nearby facilities, because many of their workers were working in more than one home. The government refused to share this with providers #auspol #ausvotes

The initial vaccine rollout in aged care was an unmitigated fiasco. Months and months behind schedule. Workers not vaccinated or boosted. It took the government indefensibly long to mandate vaccines for aged care workers as the virus spread & residents died #auspol #ausvotes

But Morrison did find time to do one thing: a photo op with an aged care resident, where she and the PM both got a jab together. Due to his hopelessly bungled rollout, all the other residents in the aged care home were told they'd have to wait another 3 months for the jab #auspol

Then there was the inconceivably blunderous buck-passing between federal & state governments. At every stage, the federal government shirked its responsibility for aged care. The lack of coordination and leadership vacuum were monumental #auspol #ausvotes

Let's not forget some of the key figures presiding over this mess: Colbeck, a minister who had no idea how many residents had died during the Delta wave & buggered off to the cricket this year during Omicron, and told the Senate he was busy battling outbreaks. #auspol #ausvotes

And then there's Morrison and Hunt, who described aged care residents as "pre-palliative" and "palliating," respectively - a shameful way of devaluing the lives of older people and encouraging the public to view them as somehow already dying #auspol #ausvotes

Nothing has actually improved for aged care residents over Morrison's term. Not malnutrition, not dehydration, mental health, allied health access, physical and sexual assaults, neglect, care failures. Not one single thing has improved. We'd know if it had. #auspol #ausvotes

Facilities which have failed quality standards again and again continue to operate. The aged care regulator has done FEWER site visits, done reaccreditations over the phone, and even given emergency reaccreditation to facilities failing care standards #auspol #ausvotes

And then there's the shockingly incompetent expenditure of taxpayer funds. The food supplement in aged care, which doesn't require providers to account for expenditure on food. The "one worker, one site" bonus which the government had no way of monitoring or enforcing. #auspol

I've watched every wretched aspect of this moveable feast of incompetence and waste play out, and by any measure, the Morrison's aged care track record is abysmal. In truth, there IS no record. There's only a chasm, a Mariana Trench of rhetoric & spin #auspol #ausvotes

If we judge our leaders by anything, it should be whether they have measurably and demonstrably improved the lives of those who are suffering. Aged care residents and older people have had to tolerate the intolerable under Morrison. Enough's enough #auspol #ausvotes

The issues in aged care are complex and varied. They won't be solved by stupid slogans or budget announcements. They won't be solved by ministers who'd rather be at the cricket. And they certainly won't be solved by a returned Morrison government #auspol #ausvotes

For once, please vote with older people in mind. They're our grandparents, our parents. One day, they'll be us. They deserve compassion, care, and a government who will make them a priority. And for god's sake: tomorrow, please vote this mob out #auspol #ausvotes