The Aged Care Services Minister has declared he has to "live with" his decision to attend a cricket match instead of a parliamentary inquiry, as the sector faced widespread outbreaks.
Richard Colbeck declined a request to attend the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 along with health department officials on January 14, saying he was busy dealing with the Omicron outbreak.
But Senator Colbeck — who is also the Minister for Sport — then went to the Ashes test on the same day of the hearing, prompting a barrage of criticism from Labor and aged care advocates.
Fronting the same committee in Canberra on Wednesday afternoon, Senator Colbeck told the inquiry he had spent the majority of the week leading up to the test match working on the aged care outbreak.
"All through that weekend I continued to work on matters relating to both of those portfolios, but particularly aged care, even though it was a weekend and also I was attending the test match," he told the committee.
"Other people will make judgements about it I'm sure, plenty already have."
Senator Colbeck said while federal Labor had criticised him for the decision, there were other politicians at the cricket match that day, including fellow Tasmanian, Labor MP Julie Collins.
He argued she left the Labor leader Anthony Albanese's tour of Queensland to be at the match, which he described as a significant event for Hobart.
"So, I wasn't the only one," he said.
"I made a judgement call, I have no option but to stand by that and take the criticism that comes with it."
The aged care sector has been under immense pressure this summer, with peak aged care groups saying Australia should have been better prepared for another COVID-19 variant like Omicron.
About half of Australia's aged care facilities are battling COVID-19 outbreaks, and the number of aged care residents who died from COVID-19 in January surpassed the entire death toll for 2021.
The committee's chair, Labor Senator Katy Gallagher, asked Senator Colbeck: "Why should you keep your job?"
"On the days of the test match I wasn't just at the cricket," he replied.
"I was actually working the problems with the officials in the department to work to manage the issues in aged care, so it wasn't one thing or the other, I was actually working on both."
Lambie blasts Minister's 'excuse'
Tasmanian independent Senator Jacqui Lambie sarcastically thanked Senator Colbeck for "showing up" to Wednesday's hearing as she began her questions.
She questioned whether Senator Colbeck was being honest when he said he could not attend the hearing on January 14 because it would "divert government resources from the COVID response".
"Was that just an excuse?" she asked.
The Aged Care Services Minister said he stood by his statement and had not wanted the department's resources to be diverted, given the high case numbers in the community and the aged care sector.
System not in crisis: Colbeck
Senator Colbeck also defended the government's handling of the sector, saying it was performing "extremely well" despite the Omicron variant sweeping through facilities.
He dismissed Senator Gallagher's characterisation of the system as in "complete crisis".
"I don't accept it's in complete crisis, Senator," Senator Colbeck replied.
"I know it is certainly working very, very hard to manage the impacts, particularly of the Omicron outbreak, but my view, and the data actually supports that, is that the sector is performing and has performed exceptionally well in the work that it's doing."
Senator Colbeck said the government was ensuring the sector had been provided with all the resources it needed.
