Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ stern warning to states on paid pandemic leave

Calls to extend the pandemic leave payment have been met with a blunt response from the nation’s Treasurer.

The federal government is pushing back against calls to extend paid pandemic leave when it expires at the end of next month.

Workers can claim up to $750 if they contract Covid and have to isolate but do not have sick leave available to them. The scheme is set to expire on September 30.

National cabinet will meet on Wednesday afternoon where it is expected leaders will discuss cutting the seven-day isolation period to five days.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, who is leading the push to reduce the period, stressed that financial support must be provided as long as people had to isolate.

Dr Chalmers hosed down calls for paid pandemic leave to be extended. NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“The reality is, if that support isn’t there then what you will have is people leaving isolation and working to provide for their families, so we have a responsibility to do that, and I’ll make that point very clear tomorrow,” he said on Tuesday.

But speaking to reporters in Canberra, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the support could not go on forever, hinting it could end next month.

“The reality, accepted on all sides, is that kind of support can’t continue forever,” Dr Chalmers said.

“It’s also contingent on some of the other ways that we’re responding to this Covid health challenge and economic challenge.”

The government initially pushed back on extending the payment last month. NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

The peak union body has thrown its support behind an extension of the payments.

Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus said people needed to be supported to isolate whenever they were required to do so by public health orders.

“And you need to do that because of equity reasons. Some people are paid and some people aren’t paid,” she told reporters at Parliament House.

“Obviously those people who aren’t paid, it’s much, 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.”

Funding for the pandemic leave payments are currently split 50-50 between the states and the federal government.

Last month, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese agreed to extend the payment until September following intense pressure from the states.

The federal government had intended it let the payment expire, citing budgetary pressures, despite Australia being in the midst of a winter surge of Omicron cases.