Health advice on reducing the isolation period for people who test positive for COVID-19 will be presented to the prime minister and state leaders on Wednesday.
A proposal to shorten the isolation period from seven to five days will be debated when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets the premiers and chief ministers for national cabinet in Sydney.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has backed the lowering, while Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says the time is right for fresh advice on isolation measures.
"I also believe in national consistency. I've made that very clear that we will be better as a country ... on the other remaining health restrictions that we move as one," Mr Perrottet told the premiers' joint media conference in Melbourne.
"We will naturally discuss and debate those things tomorrow and hopefully we will have a strong outcome."
Mr Andrews said state and territory leaders had asked at the last national cabinet meeting for advice to be prepared on whether isolation measures could be shortened.
"The time is right for us to get fresh input and we'll get that advice tomorrow, and I'm inclined to follow that advice," Mr Andrews said.
"I can't tell you what that advice will say because it's not coming from pollies. It's coming from public health experts.
"No one enjoys isolation, no one wants rules on any longer than they need to be."
The prime minister said while the views of the NSW premier on isolation measures were already well known, national consistency was needed.
"Instead of the six states and two territories going different ways we're trying to get everyone on the same page so that there's consistency in the regulations and the rules," he told Sydney radio 2SM on Tuesday.
The head of Australia's peak healthcare worker body has called for the mandatory isolation period to be scrapped.
Health Services Union secretary Gerard Hayes said it was time for Australians to take personal responsibility for their health and treat COVID like any other infectious disease.
"This is trying to get ahead of that curve, so you can actually live with COVID going forward as opposed to continue responding and having a community that is not necessarily listening," he told ABC Radio on Tuesday.
"There'll be people out there now not testing and we want to avoid that, we want a transparent, inclusive approach so people don't have to make hard choices."
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said it was clear the country was moving into a phase of the pandemic with shorter isolation.
"The arrangements otherwise that were in place at the height of COVID will start to unwind, and I think that's what the community expects," he told reporters in Melbourne.
"We'll see more advancements in the immunisation program and that's all a good thing, but people need to get back to work and people need to reunite with their families."
ACTU president Michele O'Neil said any decision on isolation periods should be left to health experts.
"It''s very important that governments at a federal and state level listen to the very best health advice and they make decisions about isolation and other matters based on that health advice," she said.
