Mr WILTON (4:17 PM) —Is it any wonder that those opposite are scurrying from the chamber, embarrassed by what was an unconvincing performance by a minister in her death throes. The indignity and pain suffered by the 60 frail and aged residents of the Riverside Nursing Home in my electorate of Isaacs has been exacerbated by Minister Bishop's incompetence, her lack of understanding and compassion and, in particular, her abject failure to accept a modicum of responsibility for this disgraceful episode. The minister clutches at straws as she drowns in a sea of kerosene. Believe me—no one on this side of the House is about to extend a hand to help her.

The minister was reported this morning on ABC radio as having no friends on that side of the House, and indeed by a government spokesperson as having more friends on this side of the House. Believe me—she has no friends on either side of the House, and no-one will extend a hand to help her out of that bath of kerosene in which she is drowning. This is because she is incapable of basically doing what is right. She is incapable of accepting responsibility for her own actions, or indeed the lack of them. As Michael Gordon said in today's Age, `This is a minister in denial. She has blamed everybody but herself.' She has blamed her own department, she has blamed the failure of the government's regulations, she has blamed the state government in Victoria and she has blamed the former federal government. The minister has blamed everybody but herself, and she stands condemned for it.

To date, clearly, the minister has failed on several occasions to respond to a number of key questions which are at the nub of her future in this place. The questions go to these issues: why didn't the minister order spot checks at Riverside Nursing Home in the electorate of Isaacs when a report on the home in May 1998 found that it had failed to meet 26 out of 29 care standards? Why did she state to parliament on two occasions last 31 August that spot checks of nursing homes had been undertaken when they had not? On 17 January this year, the minister's department was informed of the kerosene baths incident. The minister claims she was not told then but she will not say why, only yet again blaming her department. How could the minister possibly have been on a personal mission to search for a suitable nursing home for her own father, noticing the parlous state of several of them, yet fail to implement proper monitoring standards to ensure that those problems were not endemic across the nation? Finally, why have the residents of Riverside Nursing Home and their loved ones been put to the indignity and trauma of evacuation without ever being told of the future of the nursing home?

The minister's complete failure to answer these questions is the key reason why her political fate dangles by a diminishing thread. She has continued to demonstrate an absolute inability and refusal to answer questions relating to spot checks that were undertaken after a report by her Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency on Riverside in July 1999 found that it had problems with both infection control and administration of medication. Despite standing in the House, as I say, on two occasions on 31 August last year, claiming that spot checks were happening, the fact is that no spot checks have occurred to ensure that any such advance warning mechanism to avert this terrible tragedy was ever put in place.

We all know now that, since 1998, there have been in excess of 4,000 complaints received and that not one spot check has been undertaken. This minister is asleep at the wheel. She is driving a model T Ford and it is out of control. The minister has no feel nor compassion for aged people whatsoever. She only has a feel for her own backside and the huge task it takes to protect it. As I put to the minister during question time yesterday, she did not choose to announce on 24 February the sanctions against Riverside until such time as she was aware that matters would appear in the newspapers the next day. To further highlight the absolute levels of incompetence which she demonstrates time and time again, the provider was not informed of this tragic incident for nearly three weeks. We all know that this sordid and sorry saga would not have occurred had this minister put in place the appropriate monitoring standards.

This minister is more concerned about adverse media attention than she is about the welfare of residents. It is that same numbing fear of adverse media attention that forced her to act yesterday, before parliament resumed, and submit the frail, aged residents of Riverside Nursing Home and their loved ones to the indignity and trauma of evacuation. The forced relocation of the residents from Riverside to St Vincent's is simply a half-hearted last minute attempt by the minister—and not all that convincingly, by any means—to be seen to do something. She has certainly done something, all right—nearly a month after she claims the Riverside problems were first drawn to her attention. Unfortunately for the frail and elderly residents, the decisions that she has made have had a fairly grave effect on their spiritual, physical and mental wellbeing. How can we tell how the trauma of being dragged 40 kilometres across Melbourne in a confused state will affect these people in the long term? For most residents, Riverside has been their home for many years. It has been their home away from home. They have formed attachments to the staff, they have developed bonds, and of course the staff have lost their jobs in this tragedy. Many of the loved ones of residents have actually moved into the area to be closer to them, only to be dragged well and truly away. Now they have got nothing but unfamiliarity—unfamiliar walls, the unfamiliar faces of new staff, and the new routine that they will have to get used to.

And what is going to happen to them after their four weeks at St Vincent's have expired? Is the department going to uproot them again and relocate them to a different nursing home, or to some other unfamiliar environment, in a convoy of ambulances? People take quite a while to adjust to new surroundings, and two moves in four weeks could prove to be highly detrimental to these aged and frail people. And wasn't it caring—and a real insight—of the minister to highlight what could only have been the one minor bright point in the evacuees' day yesterday: when they were offered a piece of fruit upon their arrival at St Vincent's. No doubt it was a rotten banana, and I am sure that the minister will slip on its peel.

It is none other than the minister who has had responsibility for running Riverside Nursing Home over the past few weeks, and the standard of care has indeed diminished to a level that the minister claims was life-threatening and she had to close it down. It is shameful, as the front page of today's Herald Sun says. The Herald Sun editorial of today stated:

Her last attempt, yesterday, to shift the blame—this time on the previous Labor government—was the ultimate in shameless buck-passing. Had the spot checks she promised been operating, the Riverside affair might have been exposed much earlier. The ultimate blame for the debacle will rest with Minister Bishop, and she must put the welfare of the frail and aged ahead of her own political fate.

Minister, all of this begs the question: how many more Riversides are there out there? I suspect there are many, many more, and this opposition will chase you down every burrow to ensure that you apply and monitor decent standards so this will not recur. What you should do is exactly what the Herald Sun editorial of today suggested you should do: put the welfare of the aged and frail in this country above your own political hide. You must accept that responsibility for this tragedy lies with you and that you are incompetent for this post. You have no choice but to resign, and you should resign today.