A flippant junior minister and some poor choices all round have made it one of Mark Butler’s less auspicious weeks.
There comes a moment when you know a politician’s week is about to go from mildly tricky to a flat-out, pants-down, bum-kicking.
For federal health minister Mark Butler that moment came early on Tuesday morning when the ABC’s Sally Sara asked him this question:
“What do the Department’s figures tell you about how many senior Australians will die waiting for assessments and packages between now and November?”
Clang.
That was the sound of Mr Butler knowing (a) he couldn’t answer the question with numbers or he was stuffed, and (b) he was stuffed.
“We can’t predict something like that, Sally. We can’t predict whether people will live a certain period or die,” he said. (We can, by the way.)
“We know that, unfortunately, for as long as this system has been in place, tragically, people will die on a wait list for surgery, for home care, for entry to an aged care facility.
“Every death while waiting for any procedure, whether it’s an aged care procedure or a hospital procedure, is a tragedy and a very strong signal we’ve got to do better.”
Quite.
It began the Friday before when aged care providers lined up to tell the Senate inquiry into aged care service delivery that they were ready and able to deliver new home care packages because they had prepared to do so from 1 July, the original implementation date for the new Aged Care Act.
At the same hearing, Department of Health, Disability and Ageing bureaucrats lined up to tell the committee there were no “technical” reasons why the new packages couldn’t be rolled out before 1 November.
In short, the only thing between 20,000 older Australians and the help they urgently needed was a nod from Mr Butler, and the Robin to his Batman, aged care minister Sam Rae.
Any PR hack could have told you that the afternoon of that inquiry hearing was the time to announce a change of heart and get those home care packages rolling before 31 October.
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Instead, it took five days of talking nonsense, and shellackings from independent Senator David Pocock, Greens Senator Penny Allman-Payne and the ever-present coalition spokesperson for health, Senator Anne Ruston, to get the Dynamic Duo moving.
And there was nonsense talked, readers. All week.
Mr Rae was sent out to do that talking and what came out of his mouth was a stream of rubbish about how providers had said they wanted the delay, and waiting until 1 November was important to make sure the system was ready.
The truth is, from the moment the delay to the Act was announced on 4 June, aged care providers said yes, the delay was a good thing, but that they were concerned about the linking of a halt in the release of new, additional home care packages to that delay.
This, from OPAN’s press release, on 4 June:
“OPAN called for the release of a minimum 20,000 additional home care packages during the four-month delay to reduce the current 83,000 people waiting up to 11 months to receive the appropriate level of home care. Inadequate in-home care support pushes older people prematurely into residential aged care.”
This, from COTA’s CEO Patricia Sparrow, on 4 June:
“COTA Australia is calling on the government to continue to release extra packages of support for people living at home and reduce the home care package wait list even with the delayed start for the new Support at Home program. We don’t want to see older Australians continuing to experience long wait times for the support they need to remain independent at home. No one should be waiting for longer than 30 days for these critical supports.”
Mr Rae and Mr Butler continued to conflate the work needed to do to ready the system for the new Act with the ability of providers to service additional home care packages, no matter what was said by the providers.
The other pile of bat-poo talked by the politicians was the “bipartisan deal” line spouted once the backflip was done.
If that bipartisan deal was an actuality, then why wait until you’ve been trounced in the Senate to announce it?
The reality is that without the release of those 20,000 packages, the government had a slim to no chance of getting the ACOLA Bill – needed to provide vital mechanisms for the new Act – passed before the end of this week’s sitting of Parliament.
And that would have meant the strong possibility of having to delay the Act again. They opted to look silly this week, rather than in a month’s time.
For Sam Rae it was a baptism of fire on the realities of being a junior minister, promoted to cabinet before his time in order to satisfy factional demands.
According to opposition leader Sussan Ley, Mr Rae wasn’t in the room where it happened, a tantalising opportunity to slap the young fella down that the ABC’s Patricia Karvelas couldn’t resist on Wednesday afternoon.
“The deal was signed off. Were you there?” said PK.
“I’m not sure what meeting you’re referring to there. There have been a lot of meetings,” said Mr Rae. “We’ve all been involved in many, many meetings. I’m really lucky, I get to work with Mark Butler who’s a really awesome person.”
“So, you feel like you’ve survived your baptism of fire this week?” said PK.
“It’s been an awesome week. I’ve had a lot of fun and I think we’ve got some great outcomes.”
Tell your story walking, Mr Rae. That’s an appalling way to talk about a stuff-up that has caused distress to people like your grandparents.
Have a great weekend, everyone. I’m off to take out my slow-boiling rage on a garden bed full of clover.