Labor now calls for free rapid antigen tests ahead of Australian national cabinet meeting

A Coalition plan to give the disadvantaged small cash payments to cover the cost of rapid antigen tests has been dismissed by Labor and the unions, as the government resists pressure to make the tests freely available for everyone.

The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, said the idea was “ridiculous” and finally called for the tests to be made freely available.

“We have considered the options and it is clear that this is the simplest, most efficient, fairest and most responsible way to fix the mess that Scott Morrison has made of testing at this critical juncture of the pandemic,” Albanese said.

Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting of national cabinet, the Morrison government floated the plan in The Australian, revealing it would use the disaster payment system to give people on low incomes, welfare recipients and pensioners the funds needed to cover the cost of up to five tests.

If states and territories agreed to the proposal, the funding would increase to cover the cost of 10 tests.

Rapid antigen tests are understood to cost about $3 on the wholesale market, but are retailing on the private market for much more due to widespread shortages.

Speaking on Wednesday morning, Morrison said that essential tests for those who are close contacts and symptomatic would continue to be free.

“So if you’re a close contact, if you’re symptomatic, those tests are free to all Australians. Always have been. That has never changed,” Morrison said.

He said the government’s proposal related to “peace of mind tests” over and above essential requirements.

“I’ll be putting a proposal to the premiers and chief ministers today, how we can offset the cost for those who are on Commonwealth Seniors health cards and pensioners, and those on health care cards and things of that nature to defray the costs for those that they’re seeking to get, where other Australians are buying,” Morrison said.

But the proposal has already been met with some resistance, with the Queensland premier, Annasatasia Palaszczuk, saying the new system needed to be “as easy and simple as possible”.

“I haven’t seen a paper from the prime minister, I am only speaking from what I have read in the papers today, but we just need to be make it very, very simple and easy, especially to our most vulnerable people,” she said.

“For our pensioners, for our health cardholders, these should be made available for free.”

The cash for tests proposal, details of which are yet to be released, was immediately blasted as a “distraction” and an example of the prime minister again offering “too little, too late”.

“Today’s attempt to distract from his ongoing failure to make rapid antigen tests free and accessible for all Australians proves that prime minister Scott Morrison still doesn’t get it,” the Australian Council of Trade Unions acting secretary Liam O’Brien said.

“Mr Morrison is planning to divide the nation by giving a small number of Australians limited access to the healthcare they need, while everyone else is left to fend for themselves.”

“This does nothing to help small businesses and those that work for them keep their workplaces safe and open.”

The Labor deputy leader, Tanya Plibersek, also criticised the plan.

“Nothing says too little, too late like Scott Morrison saying he’ll give some people a subsidy to buy rapid antigen tests (at retail prices) when you can’t find one to buy,” Plibersek said on Twitter.

The NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, said the state had put in place a substantial order for rapid antigen tests that would begin arriving next week, and would consider making a financial contribution towards the government’s plan.

“We want to make sure those who need access to rapid antigen testing, get access to that now,” Perrottet said.

“We put whatever we need in to ensure that that support is there for people right across the state.

“If there’s a financial agreement that we can reach with the Commonwealth government, from my perspective and the treasurer’s perspective, there is no dollar figure that we will not put on the table to ensure as we move through this next phase, rapid antigen tests are available to anybody right across the state who needs one.”

When asked about providing tests free across the board, Perrottet said that would be a matter for national cabinet to consider.

“Clearly, with the significant queues that we’re seeing at PCR centres, by the provision of rapid antigen tests at those centres we will see a substantial alleviation of pressure on testing, so that is something that we’re currently focused on.”

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He urged people to continue to be patient at state testing queues, and said there was a need to continue to adapt as the nature of the pandemic changed.

“We’re in a pandemic. There’ll be curveballs thrown at us over the course of this period of time, but … we’ve overcome those challenges over the past two years,” he said.

A growing number of experts have been calling for the tests to be made free, including the Doherty Institute head Sharon Lewin, who told ABC on Tuesday they should be “widely accessible and free.”