SUBJECTS: Labor's $300 vaccine incentive proposal; vaccine rollout; lockdowns; restrictions on unvaccinated people.

GARETH PARKER, HOST: As we have been discussing this morning, the Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has suggested paying you $300 to get the jab. The Opposition Leader joins me on 6PR Breakfast. Anthony Albanese, good morning. 

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning, Gareth. Good to be with you. 

PARKER: Thanks for your time. Who would get the cash and why $300?

ALBANESE: Everyone would get it. Every day Australians have borne the burden of this pandemic. They've been magnificent in their response and it's time that we rewarded those who have done the right thing and those who will do the right thing to protect their own health, and that of their families, their communities, and indeed our whole country, by getting vaccinated. This will also help our economy and help jobs, of course, because the impact of the lockdown, one of the things I'm conscious of, is that the impact of lockdowns in the East Coast also impact the West. They impact everyone because they're a handbrake on economic activity and so we think that this would be an appropriate measure to encourage vaccinations but also an important stimulus at a time where the economy's really struggling. 

PARKER: How did you arrive at $300? Are you saying it'll cost about $6 billion in total? 

ALBANESE: Yeah, we thought that was a reasonable figure. We did consult and it was a reasonable figure which would provide that incentive, it's enough to get discussion going without being over the top in terms of a payment. If 80 per cent, which is the target, of Australians got vaccinated, then that would cost around about five billion dollars. Now, that compares with the two billion dollar cost every week that some of these lockdowns that have been, of course, across states, have had. 

PARKER: Why do you think it's not enough of an incentive for Australians or for enough Australians to say, 'you know what, here's your incentive: it's not getting seriously ill or dying of COVID'?

ALBANESE: Because the Chief Medical Officer said, Paul Kelly, said earlier this year that we needed to have incentives there. We had the national plan that was released by the Prime Minister, just last Friday, had in it as part of Phase B, encouraging uptake through incentives. Joe Biden's supporting a measure like this in the United States, it's happening in Europe, there are various incentives there. And at the same time, of course, when we look likely that the September quarter we'll see our economy go backwards because of these lockdowns, then just as the supply will increase, we need to provide some encouragement. Many Australians of course have already done absolutely the right thing but not enough of us have. We're running last in the developed world. It is a race. So, anything we can do to speed up the race is a good thing.

PARKER: I guess my question is more of a sort of a philosophical one. Why is it that you think that so many Australians are unpersuaded or apparently unpersuaded about the benefits of getting the vaccine on its own terms?

ALBANESE: Well, I think as someone who studied economics for four years at Sydney University, economic incentives can work and do work in a range of areas. One way that they work is, of course, directly, but also indirectly to start a conversation. I want people at the local, South Perth Bowling Club to be asking each other 'have you got your 300 bucks? Have you been vaccinated?'. I want to have those discussions take place. We know that there are incentives and unfortunately what has tended to happen is that when there's an outbreak, the vaccination rates go up. We've seen that in Victoria, we've seen that in in Sydney and we've seen that at the moment in Southeast Queensland as well. But we are running last in the developed world where we're struggling to get into the top 80 of countries. It has been a race. We need to do two things that I consistently have said. One is improve the rollout of the vaccine, and that's about supply and there's increased supply coming down the track, and we need to have purpose-built quarantine facilities.

PARKER: You've been hammering the PM for lack of vaccine supply but at the moment, that's not really true. At least it's not true anymore because we've got millions of doses of an approved highly effective vaccine that's called AstraZeneca. We've got it right now; it's made here in Australia. Have you done enough to encourage eligible Australians to go and get that vaccine?

ALBANESE: Well it was the Prime Minister who, of course, did a late-night press conference to change what was the advice there, but I've certainly said and will continue to say that if people are eligible to receive a vaccine, they should get that vaccine, whether it's AstraZeneca or Pfizer. But the problem we have has been one of supply. I was in regional Queensland over the last fortnight, I was at a place in Gladstone that had not enough of either vaccine. Last Tuesday, I was at a mass vaccination centre at Logan Entertainment Centre there in southeast Queensland with Jim Chalmers in his local seat. And there they're doing AstraZeneca and Pfizer, and what they said to us was, 'we could be doing more people, we don't have enough access to the vaccine'. And we also need to think about how we get the vaccine out. Why is it that after 18 months, we're just starting to use pharmacists? This was something that we were raising at the end of last year. We need to take the vaccine into workplaces. Why is it that in aged care facilities, we went in vaccinated the aged care residents in some cases, but not the aged care workers? And we know that we're continuing to have problems. I've got this massive outbreak in Summer Hill, in my electorate right now, that with dozens of people in isolation, elderly, vulnerable Australians, as a result of the fact that the workforce weren't vaccinated because they didn't have access to the vaccines. We need to do much better. This is a constructive proposal that we've put forward and we'd say the Government should adopt it like they did adopt wage subsidies, eventually, after Labor argued for it last year. 

PARKER: Anthony Albanese, last question before I let you go. Do you agree with limiting the freedom of people who are unvaccinated, stopping them from going to the footy, stopping them from being able to travel overseas without quarantine and other things of that nature?

ALBANESE: Well, I think the truth is that, in terms of overseas travel, there will be restrictions, other countries will do it. 

PARKER: So, hang on, do you support the idea of restricting the freedoms of people are unvaccinated things like going to the footy, pubs, restaurants?

ALBANESE: Well, I think that, in terms of practical cases, what you will see is that for mass events, there will be restrictions because of, not as a punishment for people who aren't vaccinated, but as a statement to protect those people who are vaccinated, and they will of course -

PARKER: Do you support the restrictions? 

ALBANESE: Well, they need to be, as well, I think catering for people who can't be vaccinated in terms of their health. They might have health reasons as well. So, we need to have a conversation about this. There will be, I think, restrictions and I think that there needs to be a bit of common sense applied here. But what I've put forward here is an incentive as a positive thing, rather than a negative. We need more carrots, and to bring the community with us on this journey. We know what's needed. We need to get people vaccinated. We need purpose-built quarantine. We should be doing both

PARKER: Anthony Albanese, thank you for your time. 

ALBANESE: Thanks Gareth.

ENDS