Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wants "national consistency" in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to emerge from a meeting with state and territory leaders.
Mr Albanese will chair national cabinet on Wednesday, where a possible extension of pandemic leave payments for infected workers will be discussed.
"We do need, in my view, that national consistency," he told reporters in Sydney.
"We'll have a discussion this morning and we'll come to what I want to be a collective decision as one."
The financial support is due to lapse at the end of September, despite people who test positive for the virus still being required to isolate for five days.
The payments were originally set to end in July, but were extended by the government following a backlash coupled with a surge of COVID-19 cases into winter.
Mr Albanese said he welcomed cutting the isolation requirement time from seven days to five, and would discuss the removal of public health orders.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet reaffirmed his support for moving away from mandated orders to a system of "respect" where if a person is sick, they stay at home.
Melbourne-based independent MP Monique Ryan - who worked as a pediatric neurologist before entering parliament - is concerned about the rolling back of strategies to combat the virus.
"There's a lot of uncertainty and anxiety about the fact that the government seems to have been winding back the mitigation strategies ... without really a plan for how this is going to affect people going forward," Dr Ryan told ABC radio.
"The reality is COVID is still with us ... pretending that it's going away, or that it has gone away, it's just not working for people."
Dr Ryan says a summit should be held to examine how coronavirus infections will be handled in coming years, amid concerns the upcoming northern hemisphere winter will herald the emergence of more sub-variants.
"What people do need is a sense of surety, and I guess confidence, that the government does have a plan," she said.
Mr Albanese appeared to back an extension of the payment on Tuesday while orders remain in place for people to isolate.
Since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, the payments have cost taxpayers more than $2.2 billion - with $320 million of that paid out since July.
Dr Ryan said she was concerned by the government's recent decision to lower the isolation threshold from seven to five days and called for greater transparency.
"It was at odds with the medical evidence. It was also concerning that the prime minister decided not to release the national cabinet minutes from that meeting," she said.
© AAP 2022