IT'S TIME TO ACT ON AGED CARE

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, peak bodies have called on the Morrison government to start reforming the aged care sector after counsel assisting the aged care royal commission submitted a whopping 124 recommendations, including but not limited to mandated staffing ratios, the compulsory registration of workers, a new independent watchdog, and a new Aged Care Act to enshrine universal rights for older people.

The push from groups including the United Workers Union and Health Services Union follows the commission’s special report into COVID-19 — which the government has accepted in full — and Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck’s announcement that the government will consider the final recommendations after the full report is published on February 26, 2021.

As The Monthly documents, Scott Morrison did not commit to any immediate reforms in yesterday’s question time.

PS: Lest anyone think aged care is a uniquely partisan failure, The Conversation has explored how many systemic failures — i.e. inappropriate staff ratios, poor training, costs, the use of chemical or physical restraints etc — have been echoed in over 30 major inquiries and reviews since 1997.

SORT IT OUT, POST-HASTE

The ABC reports that Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate is standing aside after four senior employees were given $3000 Cartier watches as thank you gifts following a 2018 deal with three of the major banks.

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has ordered an investigation into the company following the revelations at yesterday’s Senate estimates, which also heard that more than $97 million in bonuses had been handed out to Australia Post employees over the past year.

The news comes as the company faces the potential for a return to pre-COVID delivery requirements by the start of next year, with The New Daily reporting that a bipartisan senate committee has announced it will junk the “Alternating Delivery Model” — which allows Australia Post to halve the frequency of letter in metropolitan areas and cut other services — unless Fletcher can convince them of adequate consultation.

GROWING CONCERNS

Victoria’s health department expects to detect more COVID-19 cases in a growing outbreak in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, which The Age notes has resulted in more than 500 people being told to self-isolate, and accounts for all of yesterday’s five new cases.

Elsewhere, the ABC reports the department has referred an employee to Victoria Police for allegedly leaking a draft of the Andrews government’s reopening roadmap to the Herald Sun, a move state political editor Shannon Deery has slammed as “little more than petty payback ($)".

PS: In other COVID-19 news, The Guardian reports that Finance officials have acknowledged that taxpayer-funded research undertaken by the Liberal’s go-to pollster, Jim Reed, fed into two government advertising campaigns for stimulus measures.

MOMENT OF TRUTH: BARRETT CLEARS PENULTIMATE VOTE

According to The Guardian’s live blog, the US Senate judiciary committee has voted 12-10 to send Amy Coney Barrett to a full Senate vote.

Democrats have been boycotting the hearing entirely, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — who famously, successfully blocked Barack Obama’s Supreme Court pick for months until after Donald Trump’s inauguration — is now rushing to bring the matter to the Senate floor by Monday.

Hours ahead of the final presidential debate, CNN reports that Joe Biden has pledged to form a bipartisan, nondescript commission to recommend changes to the Supreme Court. He continues to decline questions on whether or not he would expand the court to reduce the Republican’s almost-guaranteed 6-3 dominance.