Senator FARRELL (South Australia) (09:51): I rise to support the Greens motion and note the contribution from the previous speakers. I don't think there's any greater issue that this country faces at the moment than confronting the coronavirus and the response to the pandemic that we now find ourselves in. It's almost as if we're living in a parallel universe: on the one hand, we're in here discussing other bits of legislation which may or may not be of interest to the community, and, on the other hand, the Greens and Labor maintain that the most important issue that this country now faces is dealing with the issue of pandemic leave. We have seen the response of the government to the aged-care crisis that's currently going on in Victorian aged-care homes and in Victorian hospitals. What was one of the triggers for that development in Victoria? One of the triggers was that employees were going from aged-care facility to aged-care facility. Why did they do that? Well, the people in this industry tend to be relatively low paid. In order to maintain an income, because of the casual nature of the employment, they have continued to work, in circumstances where obviously what they should have been doing was staying at home and recovering from this terrible virus. But instead, in order to feed their families, to pay their bills, they have been going to work. Of all the issues that we could confront here this week and over this two-week period, I don't think there's a more important issue than the ones that the Greens have put on the table today. We— An honourable senator interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Order. Senator FARRELL: No, this is the second time this week I've supported the Greens. I'm supporting them because they're absolutely right. The Greens are absolutely right on this issue. Honourable senators interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Order! Senator FARRELL: There is no greater issue— Government senators interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Order on my right! Senator FARRELL: 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.