Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has left the door ajar to re-starting the $750 pandemic payment for people to isolate when they have COVID, saying “we’ll give consideration to all of these issues” at a snap meeting of national cabinet on Monday.
The Prime Minister will get a briefing from the Chief Medial Office Professor Paul Kelly as soon as he returns from Fiji on Friday afternoon.
On Friday, the South Australian Labor government joined calls by eastern seaboard state leaders for the payment to be re-instated until the end of winter.
Anthony Albanese returns to Australia today from the Pacific leaders’ summit in Fiji.Credit:Joe Armao
The meeting will discuss the rising number of cases across Australia of COVID-19, with close to 50,000 cases recorded on Thursday, as the spread of the disease has been exacerbated by more transmissible variants and the spread of other winter diseases such as influenza.
Albanese on Friday defended the decision to axe the payment because of Australia’s trillion dollar debt but, responding to calls from the states and territories to consider restoring the payment, indicated the proposal would be carefully considered when he meets with the premiers and chief ministers on Monday.
The $750 payment paid casuals, contract workers and sole traders and others with no sick leave benefits to stay home and isolate for a week, in line with state health orders, and ended on June 30.
“We’ll give consideration to all of these issues. But we inherited these decisions but we also inherited a trillion dollars of debt. And that’s something that was not our responsibility,” he said.
“There are a range of companies who are good employers who are providing those systems [sick leave payments]. The idea that no one is getting any sick leave at the moment, it’s just not the case. Good employers are recognising that people are continuing to work from home whilst they have COVID and are receiving, therefore, payments through that.”
On Thursday, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, the ACT and Tasmania all joined in calling for the end to the payment to be reversed or at least reconsidered, as tens of thousands of people catch COVID-19 each day and are obliged under state laws to isolate for a week.
A spokesman for the SA government said the decision to bring together National Cabinet next Monday was welcome and that the state would work “collaboratively with the Albanese Government regarding assistant and support for those people impacted by COVID including pandemic leave payments and access to free [rapid antigen tests] ”.
“The state government would support a short extension of the COVID-19 Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment to help workers who have no sick leave entitlements,” the spokesman said.
NSW premier Dominic Perrottet said it was unfair for governments to end financial support as long as public health orders require people with COVID to isolate.
Perrottet on Friday said he was willing to have “all discussions” at Monday’s snap meeting of National Cabinet about funding support, including splitting costs down the middle with the federal government, vowing to advocate for casual workers.
“I’m very open to doing everything we can at the state level to support our people through this next phase of the pandemic,” he said. “I think it is unfair, that when the state imposes public health orders on people to restrict their liberty and their capacity to work for the government to not provide financial support.”
The premier backed the need to maintain support particularly through winter, after the reinfection period for COVID-19 was reduced from 12 weeks to 4 weeks.
“There’s not one time in the pandemic that we have set and left policies in place. We’ve always tailored the circumstances,” he said.“Having said that, we’ve also got to be balanced because the financial implications and the budget positions at both a commonwealth and state level are clearly under pressure.”
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has also called for the payment to be restored until the end of winter by the federal government.
The South Australian government is still supplying free RATs to close contacts of COVID cases and the NSW government has announced it will supply the tests for free to vulnerable groups.
National cabinet will meet for the second time with Anthony Albanese as Prime Minister. Credit:Rhett Wyman
Health Minister Mark Butler, who has warned of millions of new cases across Australia by the time winter ends in six weeks, defended the axing of the payment and the decision to stop providing free rapid antigen tests to concession-card holders from July 31 in an interview on ABC Radio National on Friday.
“This is the time it was intended to come off, this is the time it needs to come off … we are looking to do everything we can to reduce incidents of severe illness,” he said.
“As you move to a new phase that doesn’t have the same level of mandates around people’s behaviour … inevitably you have to start looking at these very large emergency payments that have been coming out of the budget.”
The health minister conceded it was a tough decision to end the payments during a third Omicron wave, saying there were a “range of points” that could lead to a decision to review a return of pandemic payments.
Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley criticised Albanese for breaking a promise to “leave no one behind”.
“At the heart of this is a leave payment that is there for people who just don’t have finances to fall back on. And as we walked to the studio today, past the people who clean the train stations, who set up the coffee shops, $750 is a lifeline for them,” she told Sunrise.
“And what we don’t want is them feeling forced to come to work to protect their family, to put food on the table. And that is this is just not good enough.”
More than 47,000 cases and 78 deaths were recorded in Australia on Thursday with 4512 people in hospital.
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