Business leader calls for urgent change to household isolation rules

There are growing calls from Victorian industry leaders for isolation rules for household contacts to be scrapped.

Victorian head of the Australian Industry Group, Tim Piper, says the current seven-day isolation rule is too long, but he admits there’s “a legitimate reason for it”.

“What we’re finding is so many venues and businesses are finding it very hard to get people to work,” he told Ross and Russel.

“We’re finding that about 20 per cent of the workers are actually being furloughed for one reason or another.”

Mr Piper acknowledged reducing the isolation period could lead to more workers contracting COVID-19, but said it should be trialled, because businesses aren’t coping.

“What we’d like to do is reduce the seven days down to three or four,” he said.

“We’re going to have problems around supplies at Easter time because we simply don’t have enough people to work, and that’s on top of the lack of skills and the lack of people we have working at the moment.”

Press PLAY below to hear the change the Australian Industry Group thinks should be made