SUBJECTS: Labor’s $300 vaccine incentive proposal; vaccine rollout; need for national quarantine facilities; restrictions on unvaccinated people overseas; JobKeeper rorts.

MARCUS PAUL, HOST: Okay, fully vaccinated Australians would get an instant $300 cash payment from a Labor Government, with Anthony Albanese pledging to fork out up to $6 billion if he becomes Prime Minister by December. Albo joins us on the program. Good morning to you, Anthony. 

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning, Marcus.

PAUL: Thank you for your time. Should a Federal election be held before then, you say you would honour your commitment and pay out the cash retrospectively. That's $300 for every Australian man, woman and child if they receive their second COVID-19 jab by December the first.

ALBANESE: That's right, this would be good to improve the take up rate of vaccines. We know that the Government had two jobs this year; the rollout of the vaccine and national quarantine facilities. And it failed on both. We need to do better when it comes to our vaccination rates. We’re last in the developed world, and the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kelly, said early this year, I think we really do need to look for incentives, as many incentives as we can, for people to become vaccinated. Now, this has been put forward, Marcus, as a constructive idea. We hope the Government takes it up. The Government were reluctant about wage subsidies last year. They need to provide every incentive because, as well, the economy of course, is really struggling. Small businesses are struggling, workers are struggling as a result of these lock downs, and this stimulus would help to save jobs and create economic activity.

PAUL: We need to reach around 80 per cent of adults vaccinated by, certainly by, the end of this year in order to reopen our economy, reopen our major cities, including Sydney. Will this incentivise people to do so, do you think?

ALBANESE: Well, it will provide an incentive. Of course, so many Australians are already out there doing the right thing but what this will do is encourage conversations around the water cooler, within families. We need to provide every possible incentive. The rest of the world, Marcus, is doing measures like this. You have other cash incentives now being supported by the Biden administration. In some of the US states they have lotteries. In other areas they have incentives in stores or even in bars to go to. Here in Australia, this is a constructive idea to try to boost our vaccination rates as the supply gets better, and we argue that this is put forward in a constructive spirit and the Government should get on board here. The worst that can happen is that vaccination rates increase and, as well, we help support jobs in our economy at a time when economists are predicting that the September quarter, the one we're in now, will actually go negative. Again, which will be, of course, the third negative quarter we've had over the recent period.

PAUL: Yep, 20 million Australians are expected to be eligible for the jab by the end of this year. This incentive will cost the Budget bottom line around $6 billion, but as earlier callers mentioned to me, earlier on the program Albo, we've got plenty of money available in the Budget. There is billions of dollars sitting idle. I would imagine for the Prime Minister and the Liberal-National Party too, I guess, use as a war chest leading up to the next federal election. Well, that would still be a good use of money.

ALBANESE: Well, they have $9 billion in decisions taken but not announced. That is, they've made decisions to spend taxpayers’ money, but they won't tell you what it's being spent on. So, it seems to me that this is a common sense idea. We do need to boost our vaccination rates and what this would do is provide that positive incentive. And we need to have a positive discussion. So, I know there are discussions about whether people will be allowed to go to events and those issues and it is appropriate we have those discussions.

PAUL: Where do you sit, where does Labor sit, on vaccine passports? I know you mentioned earlier on the Today Show that, obviously, constitutionally, we cannot mandate for people to take a vaccination, but we can certainly incentivise them to. But where does Labor stand at a Federal level on vaccination passports? In other words, if you don't get the jab, you can't go to the footy. You can't go and watch the cricketers play and all these other major events.

ALBANESE: Well, there will be issues like there have been in other countries. I know the Bruce Springsteen concert recently, for example, in New York, if you hadn't had your jab, you didn't get to attend. And there will be those issues discussed and raised. But what I'm trying to do here, Marcus, has put forward something that's positive. Not saying what you can't do, but what you can do and what incentive, positive incentive, you will get. That's a discussion, I think, that is constructive, that's positive, and one that the Government should be engaged with. It's one that is predicated upon, ‘how do we bring the Australian people with us on this journey?’ and that's the spirit in which this is put forward. As you know, Marcus, we put forward the idea of wage subsidies last year, Scott Morrison said it was ‘a dangerous idea’ and guess what eventually happened? It happened only after the queues were around the corner at Centrelink and then we had JobKeeper. What I'm saying is don't wait. Don't wait until we're in December and we have more excuses, more blame shifting from this Prime Minister and say ‘ah well, the rates aren't up to where we want them to be. We're going to have to do something’ and provide some financial incentive to encourage the discussion to encourage people to come forward. Do it now. Do it in a positive way. And that's the spirit in which this this idea is put forward. It's something that I just don't see a downside and I find it a bit stunning that the Government is already briefing out against it, given it's consistent with the advice of the Government's Chief Medical Officer and also consistent with their plan going forward, which spoke about incentives as well.

PAUL: Well, rather than briefing against your proposal this morning, perhaps they should focus on the fact that the Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, has failed to act on imperative Treasury advice to set up an independent review of the $90 billion JobKeeper program despite Parliament's Budget watchdog exposing an estimated $25 billion was paid to firms that did not receive or record the forecast revenue fall. So, for all those out there this morning that will jump up and down, and there'll be plenty of them out there who'll say ‘ah bloody Labor again, they want to waste our money and, you know, they're always spending’ just remember, $25 billion was paid to firms that didn't record a forecast revenue fall and when it's not imperative that this money is repaid, the Treasurer refuses to ask them to repay the money. So, you want to talk about waste? Look no further than that $25 billion.

ALBANESE: Well, that's exactly right, and this was for companies that were doing well, and it went into corporate profits and executive bonuses. What we're talking about here is putting $300 in the pockets of Australians who have been battling, who have been doing it tough. And then they will then spend it, of course at the local small business, spend it in ways that keeps jobs in place and keeps the economy going, particularly in the lead up to Christmas. It's been a tough couple of years for Australians. How about we give them something back in order to stimulate the economy, as well as, of course, importantly, protect people's health. And these lockdowns, Marcus, are costing some $2 billion a week when we had the three states locked down. We currently have a whole range of people in New South Wales and Queensland locked down but that's having an impact on the economy much wider, because when I was travelling in Queensland a couple of weeks ago, one of the things they were saying is that even though they weren't locked down in Queensland at that time, it was impacting on their economy because they weren't getting the visitors from New South Wales and Victoria.

PAUL: Albo, good to have you on. Thank you. 

ALBANESE: Thanks very much, Marcus. 

ENDS