‘Disaster pay’ for Tassie

$1500 in paid virus leave

Federal Bureau Chief

CLAIRE BICKERS

TASMANIANS will now get $1500 of paid pandemic leave if they need to quarantine for 14 days, following an agreement between the state and federal governments.

Victoria has so far been the only state to get the commonwealth lump sum payments while it battles a second wave of coronavirus.

But Scott Morrison announced on Wednesday that the payments would now be extended to Tasmanians, following a request from the state government. The payments are designed to stop sick employees going to work because they would face financial difficulty if they didn’t.

Workers are eligible for the payments if they are told by a health official to stay home from work and they have used up all their sick leave entitlements, including any special pandemic leave they may be eligible to claim.

People can apply for the payments if they have been told to self-isolate from August 22 onwards.

“Tasmanian workers are eligible for the payment if they are not receiving income, earnings or salary maintenance from work, receiving the JobKeeper payment or other forms of Australian government income support,” the Prime Minister said in a joint statement with Premier Peter Gutwein.

Tasmania receiving the payments — when it has one active case of coronavirus compared to 196 in NSW or 17 in Queensland — has prompted questions about the allocation of commonwealthfunded paid pandemic leave.

Mr Morrison was asked three weeks ago, when he announced pandemic leave payments on August 3, if other states would be eligible.

He responded: “No, this is a disaster payment.”

On August 5, Mr Morrison said in an interview: “If other states or territories want to enter into a similar arrangement, then I will be making an offer to those states and territories if they wish to do that. Of course, they are not facing the same level of challenge.”

On August 7, he said he had written to all state and territory leaders offering the disaster payments but none had indicated they would want to take up the scheme.

The Mercury has confirmed a state is not required to be in a state of emergency to be able to claim the payments.