Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

There is no greater issue that this country confronts. Anybody who has a family member in Victoria knows the risks that are going on in that state. Lots of frontline workers are out there. One example that I'm familiar with are the retail workers. They have continued to work throughout this whole period if they work in supermarkets. People have obviously continued to need to eat. These workers have been frontline workers. What happens when their sick leave runs out? They have to make a choice for their families: 'Do I go do work and risk infecting other people if I've got the virus, or do I stay home and have no money to feed myself?' It's a pretty simple proposition, and until this government understands why this crisis—the total collapse in the aged-care industry—has occurred in Victoria under their watch I don't think we're going to get a solution to this problem.

The more we can do to assist those workers who've got to make that choice—and it's not an easy choice. We know people have been making the wrong decisions. Why have they been making the wrong decisions? They haven't got paid pandemic leave. Fourteen days is a good period, because by and large, hopefully, you're over and done with the virus. You can get a test. It's what I am going to have to do that when I go back to Adelaide on Friday to make sure I haven't caught the virus up here. Those people can have the opportunity to go and do their test, recover and then come back to work. The small price of paid pandemic leave is miniscule compared to the damage that is being done to this economy by these lockdowns. It's a small price to pay both to help the individuals themselves who have obviously run out of sick leave and to help the country get back and overcome the economic carnage that has occurred. So I support very much the debate this morning on this bill.