SUBJECTS: COVID outbreaks and restrictions around Australia; vaccine rollout; need for national quarantine; Doherty modelling; national plan for reopening; children getting vaccinated against COVID-19; COVID-19 outbreaks in First Nations communities. 

GLENN 'STOLZY' STOLZENHEIN: Anthony Albanese, Albo, how are you mate?

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning. I'm not too bad. It's quite a nice day in Canberra this morning.

STOLZENHEIN: Well, you've been in lockdown in Canberra since June, you were telling me off air. That's a hell of a long time to be stuck with the pollies in Canberra.

ALBANESE: Well, I haven't been in Canberra the whole time, but I haven't been able to go home during that time. I've used Canberra as a base. I haven't left Canberra for I guess about six weeks now. The lockdown came as I was about to go to Darwin. But Australians are doing it tough. These are times that are very difficult for people. They are difficult for people who can't go to work. They're difficult for parents trying to home-school their kids. They are difficult for people worried about their loved ones, people with their mum or their dad in aged care and they can't go and visit them. It's a difficult time for all of us. But Australians are showing how resilient and tough we are. They're doing the right thing whenever they can and getting vaccinated. And that's the key, of course, for opening back up again.

STOLZENHEIN: Well, that's what we all want. Because all you’ve got to do is to take a stroll down the main street here in Nowra, if you go to one of our beautiful villages here in the Shoalhaven, and you realise, and it hurts your heart, Anthony, you realise that businesses are hurting. These are people that are going to sleep at night not knowing what's going to happen the next day as we go day in and day out into lockdown. Is there enough being done, do you think, to make sure that everyone's taken care of? Because we're talking about when we hit that 70-80 per cent vaccination rate. There's that question of how long the support, the stimulus, keeps going. What's your take on it?

ALBANESE: Well, people are still slipping through the cracks. People who are casual employees who now don't have any income at all, people who are running businesses who aren't getting enough support, people in the tourism sector, which is important in the Shoalhaven there. Of course, the arts sector is important as well. And I don't believe there's been anywhere near enough support for that sector. 

STOLZENHEIN: I agree, having many friends in the industry, of course, that has been a constant complaint from them. As we head towards this magical figure of 70 per cent to be totally vaccinated, we seem to all be going out and getting the jab. Are you predicting that once we get to a certain level of that 65, getting everyone else over the line, is that the reasoning behind you proposing paying people to go along and get vaccinated?

ALBANESE: Well, I've proposed a $300 cash payment. And the reason why I've done that is that throughout the world, we know that economic incentives do work. And most people will go and get vaccinated for their own health, for their family, for the health of their community. But there's a whole lot of people out there who might be saying to themselves, 'Yeah, I'll get vaccinated, but what's the rush?'. There are others who have tried to book vaccines, but because the supply of the vaccines was stuffed up, they couldn't get an appointment. They tried and they tried again and they tried again. The record I have is five. One of my constituents tried five times to get an appointment and still hasn't been able to be vaccinated. So people who are frustrated, we want to encourage them. And we also want to reward people who've done the right thing. And you were just talking about economic stimulus, an injection of $300 for every Australian who's vaccinated, that would be spent in their local community, at their local shops as they open up. It would be a good thing for the economy as well at a time that needs it.

STOLZENHEIN: Absolutely. Look, I know firsthand from speaking to my listeners and everyone that's out here in regional Australia, here in the Shoalhaven going in lockdown where there are very minimal cases, there's a lot of frustration. And I just need to echo that there is a lot of frustration, but people are going about and doing what they should when they should. So I have to applaud the area that I live in. But there's also a lot of frustration. I know you'd have a bit to say about this. It is a day in day out thing with our premiers and Federal Government getting everyone on the same page. What's the magic potion to get everyone on the same page with dealing with this? Do you have one?

ALBANESE: Well, it would help if we had a Prime Minister who didn't describe people in Western Australia and Queensland as being cave dwellers. That would've helped to get people moving in one direction, I think. Look, it requires a cooperative approach. It's understandable that people who come from states that don't have any COVID, who are getting the AFL Grand Final, it is going to Perth, the NRL Grand Final is going to Brisbane, that's understandable. But we do need to open up over a period of time when we reach those targets. The target, of course, of 80 per cent fully vaccinated. But we also need to see a plan to vaccinate those 12- to 15-year-olds. We need to make sure that people who are vulnerable, the figures on our First Nations people, for example, who are vulnerable because Indigenous people have higher rates of diabetes, of lung disease, the fact that they're way behind the general population in terms of as a percentage when they were supposed to be in the priorities. We still don't have all our aged care workers or disability care workers fully vaccinated. I think the Government has a lot to answer for not rolling out the vaccinations effectively. We've known this was coming. We are now 20 months into the pandemic. 

STOLZENHEIN: Okay. It was an interesting point. When we are at 70 to 80 per cent vaccinated, I don't think our Indigenous population will be sitting at that same rate of vaccination. I think that is a given there. There needs to be more to be done about it. Anthony, Albo, I'll leave it there. Thank you so much for your time this morning. It's an ever-changing world that we live in every time we wake up. We go to sleep thinking one thing and wake up thinking another. So we're rolling with the punches as best we can.

ALBANESE: It is, mate. So stay safe. And if you can get vaccinated, please do so.

ENDS