Albanese under pressure as Perrottet leads charge to reboot pandemic pay | jamesmassola LucyCormack paulsakkal
New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet is leading the states’ campaign to reinstate the $750 COVID isolation leave payment, after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese opened the door to compromise in what would be his first backdown in government.
Australia recorded 43,488 new cases over the last 24 hours and another 90 hospitalisations, taking that current total to 4,602 people.confirmed with several federal ministers, who asked not to be named so they could discuss confidential deliberations, that there was growing recognition the payment may have to be restarted, amid warnings of millions of new infections before winter is finished.
“If the government forces you to not go to work because of public health orders, I fundamentally believe the government should compensate you,” he said. “And whilst that is the case for the UK, they are not in winter. We have to be conscious of the fact we are in the middle of winter.”Early on Friday, Albanese defended the decision to axe the payment because of Australia’s trillion-dollar debt but left the door ajar to restoring it when the matter is discussed on Monday.
A senior government source in Queensland, who asked not to be named, said the state backed New South Wales’ view as it would be a significant shift in pandemic policy for the federal government to force states to split the bill for individual support payments.
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