South Australia to seek paid pandemic leave from Commonwealth
Treasurer Rob Lucas will urgently seek $1500 pandemic leave payments from the Federal Government after it agreed to fund the scheme in Tasmania – which has fewer active cases than five other states.
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South Australia is forking out for paid pandemic leave when the Federal Government has agreed to fund the scheme in Tasmania – which has fewer active cases than five other states.
Treasurer Rob Lucas is now seeking urgent clarification from the Commonwealth after Scott Morrison today announced the $1500 lump sum payments would be granted to Tasmania after a request from that state’s government.
Tasmania is the second state to be granted access to the scheme after Victoria, which is battling a horror second wave of coronavirus.
It has one active case of COVID-19 compared to 196 in New South Wales, 17 in Queensland, nine in WA, three in SA and more than 3600 in Victoria.
South Australia announced its own paid pandemic leave scheme on Tuesday but will now seek to join the Commonwealth scheme.
Mr Lucas said SA had not been given clarification of the scheme’s requirements, which has been pitched as a payment for regions in a state of disaster.
“If Tasmania which has one active case is eligible for a $1500 federal scheme, then we will be arguing very strongly that SA is in exactly the same position,” Mr Lucas told The Advertiser.
“This is completely out of the blue that a state with one active case can be eligible for the scheme.
“If that’s the case, then with three active cases, we’ll be arguing very strongly that we too should be treated the same way.”
He said there was still a need for a state scheme as the federal scheme did not cover some workers.
The Prime Minister was asked three weeks ago, when he announced pandemic leave payments on August 3, if other states would be eligible.
He responded: “No, this is a disaster payment.”
“If another state were to be in a position, and God forbid they were, that there was a disaster of the scale that we’re seeing in Victoria, then a disaster payment of this nature … would be entered into,” Mr Morrison said.
“This is to deal with a disaster.”
Mr Morrison then said in an interview on August 5: “If other states or territories want to enter into a similar arrangement, then I will be making an offer to those states and territories if they wish to do that. Of course, they are not facing the same level of challenge.”
On August 7, Mr Morrison said in an interview that he had written to all state and territory leaders offering the disaster payments but none had indicated they would want to take up the scheme.
The payments, which are for workers who need to self-isolate but have no sick leave left, are designed to stop sick employees going to work because they would face financial difficulty if they didn’t.
The Advertiser has confirmed a state is not required to be in a state of emergency to claim the payments or to meet any threshold of coronavirus case numbers.
A state just needs to believe they should be ‘disaster declared’ to be eligible.
They must request the payment and be willing to be described as in a state of disaster by the Commonwealth.
The federal government administers the money as disaster payments similar to its fund for families in need during the summer’s horror bushfires.
It says states sought clarification and were given this explanation of ‘disaster declared’.
The issue has come back into the spotlight as the Greens put a paid pandemic leave bill before the federal parliament.
Workers in eligible states can claim the payment over the phone by calling 180 22 66.
More information is available at www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/disaster