COVID isolation rules dumped as PM calls time on ‘emergency’ measures
Front row: Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet , Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews Back row: ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr, SA Premier Peter Malinauskas, WA Premier Mark McGowan, Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff and NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles, during a press conference following a national cabinet meeting. none
Australians who contract COVID-19 will no longer need to isolate after national cabinet agreed the country’s period of “COVID exceptionalism” was over.
Declaring the time for emergency pandemic measures had passed, Anthony Albanese scrapped the last vestiges of Australia’s hard-line COVID-19 restrictions on Friday, with the changes securing unanimous agreement from state and territory leaders at an in-person national cabinet meeting.
Front row: Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet , Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews Back row: ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr, SA Premier Peter Malinauskas, WA Premier Mark McGowan, Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff and NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles, during a press conference following a national cabinet meeting. none
From October 14, people who catch COVID-19 will no longer need to stay home for five days and casual workers will no longer receive government-funded pandemic leave.
The decision to end stay-at-home requirements was welcomed by business, but unions are urging the Albanese government to change workplace laws to reduce the number of workers without access to sick leave.
Workers in vulnerable settings like aged care, disability care and hospitals will still be eligible for paid pandemic leave, with the cost to be split equally between the federal and state governments.
Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly stressed the advice, which was requested by Mr Albanese on Thursday and not discussed by state and territory chief health officers, was “context-specific and timing-specific”.
“It does not in any way suggest that the pandemic is finished,” Professor Kelly said.
“We will almost certainly see future peaks of the virus into the future, as we have seen earlier in this year.”
COVID-19 cases have fallen steadily since mid-July. About 39,500 Australians tested positive for the virus over the past week, compared with more than 300,000 per week at the peak of the third omicron wave.
The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, the body of state and federal chief health officers, has been asked to develop advice on how health settings could be altered in future high-risk periods.
The decision to end the $540 pandemic leave payment will be a boost to state and federal government budgets, with sick casuals applying for more than $320 million in assistance since July 20. The payment was worth up to $750 per worker before national cabinet reduced isolation requirements from seven to five days last month.
Mr Albanese said it was not “sustainable for the government to pay people’s wages forever”.
“It was always envisaged that these measures were emergency measures that were put in place, and what we have done today is take the advice from the chief medical officer, listened to that advice, and, therefore, changed the settings so that they are proportionate.”
Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil said she was concerned that insecure workers without paid sick leave could have to choose between putting food on the table and isolating while they were sick.
“The Albanese government must look to change our workplace laws to reduce the number of workers without leave and consider if current leave arrangements for casuals are appropriate,” she said.
Australian Retailers Association chief executive Paul Zahra said the shift away from isolation was “significant and welcome” and that schemes like paid pandemic leave could not be in place forever.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar said the commonsense change was a sign life was returning to normal.
“Today, Australia has turned a corner in its approach to living with the virus,” Mr McKellar said.
“With very low rates of COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations continuing to decline across the country, national cabinet has made the right choice to amend isolation requirements in line with the health advice.”
Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said the “sound decision” got the balance right between the health of the community and the “desperate need for workers facing so many businesses”.
“Workplace practices that minimise the spread of the virus together with personal responsibility is the right approach at this stage of the pandemic and for the future,” Mr Willox said.
But the nurses union warned the removal of isolation requirements could lead to more cases and put pressure on hospitals.
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Foundation assistant secretary Lori-Anne Sharp said that “the sad reality is COVID is not over”.
“We must continue to do all we can to prevent further pressure on our healthcare system and the precious nurses, midwives and carers who hold it together.”
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