AUSJET/ADVCA has indicated support for Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the National Cabinet for the decision to change close contact rules and isolation exemptions for the energy resources, water and waste management sectors.

AUSJET/ADCVA chair Peter Jones said the past two years of COVID-19 have been of concern for the peak industry body due to the lack of a prescribed and legislated list of essential services across the states and territories, other than NSW.

“The decision by the national cabinet to change close contact rules and extend the ‘furlough arrangements’ to the industrial services sector gives workers and the industry clarity about the immediate future,” Jones said.

According to Jones, the association’s members and wider industry participants fully support the need for controls to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 and the Omicron Variant.

“Our members have implemented all directives issued by the government in relation to social distancing and hygiene,” Jones explained. "If, however, our industry businesses continued to be deemed as ‘nonessential’, it may have caused harm to the community, as many of our member services support vital infrastructure and help maintain public hygiene.”

AUSJET/ADVCA, the peak industry body for businesses involved in providing industrial cleaning, liquid waste management and asset maintenance services to government agencies, has advocated and campaigned for some time across every state and territory for many of its member services to be legislated as essential services.

“Even though it took COVID-19 to finally change the legislation, our membership applauds the national cabinet decision, and we recommend that those changes should remain in place once COVID-19 is under control,” Jones added.