The national cabinet will meet in Sydney on Wednesday afternoon,and NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has while Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has been more cautious.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government has to consider the budget.Alex Ellinghausen
The premiers are united in as long as there is a mandatory isolation period. The payments were extended by the federal government in July but are due to expire at the end of next month.
Chalmers said he wanted to avoid preempting the national cabinet discussion,but the federal government had to consider the cost of the payments ahead of its first budget in October.
“I’m proud of the expansion that we made working closely with the state and territory leaders in the past. But I think the reality accepted on all sides is that that kind of support can’t continue forever,” he said on Wednesday morning.
“The budget’s got some pretty serious constraints. We’ve inherited a budget that is heaving with a trillion dollars in Liberal Party debt. And so we’ve got to work out where we can get maximum value for money,maximum bang for buck,on the commitments that we make.”
Chalmers said any changes to the pandemic leave payment would also be affected by any tweaking of government response to the pandemic.
“One of the issues at play there is the length of the isolation period. And again,not wanting to preempt the discussion that will happen in Sydney this afternoon,but that’s a relevant consideration as well,” he said.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said there was a “common sense” approach to removing the payments and reducing the length of isolation.
“$750[payments],I do think needs to be reviewed as well,because many small business employers you speak to talk about that being big a problem for them to get started back,” he told Sky television on Wednesday morning.
The Prime Minister is set to reinstate the pandemic leave payments after a national cabinet meeting of leaders today.
“I support that Dominic Perrottet proposal,around reducing the seven days down to at least five,I think we do need to live with COVID,now that’s the reality.”
ACTU secretary Sally McManus said people needed to continue to receive financial support to self-isolate if required under public health orders as isolation rules.
“You need to do that because of equity reasons,” McManus said on Wednesday.
“Some people are paid and some people are not paid. Obviously,for those people who aren’t paid it’s much harder for them to follow those orders,and that affects all of us in terms of there being a greater spread of the virus.”
With Angus Thompson
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