PM lashed after announcing changes to Covid-19 policies following national cabinet meeting

Anthony Albanese has been lashed after he announced several major changes to Covid-19 policies after an emergency national cabinet meeting.

Acting Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has slammed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for taking his time to re-instate support payments for people struck down with Covid-19.

Australian workers affected by isolation rules who can’t get sick leave will again be eligible for $750 payments from the government.

The prime minister confirmed the pandemic leave disaster payment scheme will be reinstated until September 30, with the cost to be split 50-50 between the Commonwealth and states and territories.

It’s a major reversal from the Prime Minister’s earlier position that the scheme should lapse over winter as planned.

Ms Ley rejected Mr Albanese’s claims he wanted to stick to the Coalition’s time frame as a “ridiculous excuse”.

“He knew, as those payments were concluding, exactly what the health situation was turning into with new waves of Covid,” she told the ABC on Saturday.

Acting Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has called on Mr Albanese to apologise to casual workers. Picture: Matt Turner

“Anthony Albanese needs to apologise to every casual worker who suffered stress as a result of this flip-flopping.”

Mr Albanese came to the agreement with state and territory leaders on Saturday morning at a snap national cabinet meeting, which was brought forward from Monday to address the escalating winter Covid-19 surge.

“All of the states and territories, as well as the Commonwealth understand that emergency payments are just that — they can’t continue forever given the fiscal constraints that are on government at all levels, but that this is an appropriate measure going forward,” he said after the meeting.

Mr Albanese said the federal government would also reinstate crisis payments for people on income support payments or study allowances who are affected by isolation requirements.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced the Australians will be able to access the $750 Covid isolation payments until September 30. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

The government will also create a new temporary telehealth Medicare item so GPs can spend longer with their patients to assess the suitability for oral Covid-19 antiviral treatments.

Mr Albanese said the extension of payments was expected to cost about $780m. The payments will be available from Wednesday morning.

Mr Albanese confirmed the scheme which had provided free rapid antigen tests to concession card holders would not be extended, but he said the states had programs in place to provide them for free to vulnerable people.

Millions of Australians could contract the virus in the second half of winter with the wave expected to peak in August.

Australian Council of Social Service acting chief executive officer Edwina McDonald welcomed Mr Albanese’s announcements but said more needed to be done to address inequality in the longer term.

“The prime minister is open to taking the health advice and looking at what is needed, really committed to making sure no-one is left behind,” she told the ABC.

ACTU Secretary Sally McManus called on the Albanese government to reinstate the payments for sick workers who had to isolate. Picture: Brendan Beckett

“That is really encouraging to hear that. But we know that we do need a longer term solution as well.”

Mr Albanese had brought national cabinet forward to Saturday following an urgent briefing from the nation’s top health advisers, held almost immediately after he touched down in Australia from Fiji on Friday evening.

Mr Albanese and his Health Minister Mark Butler were briefed by chief health officer Paul Kelly and Health Department secretary Brendan Murphy, with infections skyrocketing and hospitalisations rising.

Professor Kelly provided another briefing to national cabinet on Saturday.

Mr Albanese spent most of the week at the Pacific Islands Forum in Suva while facing significant domestic criticism for his insistence the government couldn’t afford to extend the pandemic leave disaster payments given Australia had “inherited a trillion dollars of debt”.

He bowed to pressure from unions, premiers, the opposition and members of his own backbench who argued sick casual workers couldn’t reasonably be ordered to stay home without financial support.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet was among the premiers calling on Mr Albanese to bring the payments back. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Mr Albanese had said he wanted to stick with the Morrison government’s deadline for the scheme — which has seen nearly $1.9bn paid out to people across the country — to cease on June 30.

Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus welcomed Mr Albanese’s reversal on the payments, which was unsurprising, given she had spent much of the week calling on him to back down.

“This is a really essential part of our defences as a country. It’s about supporting everyone. We really welcome that the prime minister is backing workers to keep everyone safe at this time,” she told reporters on Saturday.

Ms McManus had told Nine a day earlier that not reinstating the payments would be “abandoning people and not the Australian way”.

Saturday’s national cabinet meeting was the second since Mr Albanese became prime minister. The first was held on June 17, three weeks after the federal election.