
National Cabinet to discuss COVID disaster payment funding.
Finishing the job of vaccinating aged care workers and residents for COVID-19 and slicing up the cost of support for families and business will be on the agenda for political leaders when National Cabinet meets on Friday.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday announced states and territories going into lockdown for more than seven days to deal with outbreaks will get access to disaster-style payments of up to $500 a week.
Morrison and the premiers will discuss how to fund the scheme. The two options are a straight 50-50 split of costs, or one level of government would fund business support while the other handles households.
Prime Minister @ScottMorrisonMP has introduced the temporary COVID disaster payment for circumstances where there are lockdowns imposed by states that are longer than seven days and are deemed hotspots.https://t.co/oHGZvGXWQ2
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) June 3, 2021
In any case, support will start to flow to Victorians from Tuesday, with the amount depending on whether they are casual or full-time workers and how much they have in savings.
"What matters is that businesses get the support they need and households get the support they need and the politicians don't need to have a discussion in public about how that is going to get done," Mr Morrison said.
"We just need to get on with it."
The federal government is also looking at ways to find out how many aged care workers have been vaccinated.
Morrison said National Cabinet would also discuss whether it should be mandatory for aged care staff to be vaccinated, which expert advisers have never recommended.
The advice is unlikely to change but the prime minister favours the idea of states using public health orders, which WA successfully used to boost the vaccination of quarantine workers.