The scandals surrounding the treatment of old people in nursing homes have taken a horrifying turn.

As reported in yesterday's Herald Sun, a male employee of a Victorian nursing home has been charged with raping four elderly inmates in their 90s - one aged 98. 

The Federal Government has called an emergency summit, thus repeating what has been its typically reactive response to past reports of nursing home abuse. 
But it is reasonable to ask what happened to the lessons that should have been learned six years ago when the Herald Sun revealed that 57 elderly patients were given kerosene baths to treat skin conditions in another nursing home? 
That scandal led to the political demise of the then minister Bronwyn Bishop. 
There has since been a litany of complaints about nursing homes - some branded as fire traps, some as places where frail inmates were assaulted, and others where medication mix-ups happened. 

Immediately after latest reports of the alleged rapes, the new federal Minister for Ageing, Senator Santo Santoro, in the job for only three weeks, demonstrated that he has a great deal of learning to do before he is on top of his sensitive portfolio. 

He pledges to learn "how to improve a system which I think is working well, but clearly it needs to be fined-tuned". 

Come, Minister, a great deal more than fine-tuning is need to rectify the grievous shortcomings revealed in this latest case. With remarkable medical advances, Australia's population is ageing dramatically, leading the Federal Government to bemoan the growing welfare cost. 

Nationally, there are about 2960 aged care facilities and 155,000 people in aged care.  State and federal governments have an obligation to do very much better to protect this increasingly significant and vulnerable section of the community. 

For example, one disturbing feature of the latest case was the delay in reporting of the assault and the typical frustration experienced by relatives trying to get a response from the bureaucracy. 

Measures now being advocated include mandatory reporting of abuse and compulsory criminal checks on prospective nursing home employees. 
Also advocated are random, unannounced checks on nursing homes. 
Such requirements, apply to the care and protection of children Why not the aged?