Blunt warning on $750 payment

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, stressed that financial support must be provided as long as isolation periods were in place. “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.”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. They had intended it let the payment expire, despite the being in the midst of rising Omicron cases, citing budgetary pressures.