Aged-Care Facilities Audit

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (15:10): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing regarding aged-care audits.

Leave granted.

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS: In June, the government received audit reports of state-run aged-care facilities; however, only released these reports this month under the cover of the interim report from the aged-care royal commission. The reports detail significant abuse and neglect of aged-care residents, including physical restraints kept on at Lameroo for seven hours at a time, staff being rough with residents at Kingston SE, undue force used on a resident at Minlaton that was not reported to the police, and residents left in squalor at Pinnaroo. The list goes on.

My question to the minister is: why did the minister sit on these reports for 133 days, and what actions have been taken, including reporting allegations to police and disciplining staff over the damning audit findings?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:11): The department received the report in June. I received it somewhat later. The department, particularly the country local health networks, each developed a detailed implementation plan. The final report was released at the same time as the local health network implementation plans were released. The government's view is it is important for the community to know not only what the issues are but what the government is going to do about them.