SUBJECTS: Labor’s $300 Covid vaccination incentive; lockdowns; Stranded Aussies

HOST: Now you know the magic numbers that are on the roadmap for Australia to move past the pandemic. When 70% of eligible Australians are vaccinated lockdowns are less likely and restrictions will ease at 80% lockdowns should be a thing of the past. Australians can travel overseas, and vaccinated Australians can return, but how long will it take to get to that number? The Federal Opposition is suggesting a $300 payment for everyone would speed it up. To tell you all about it. The Federal Leader of the Opposition of the Australian Labor Party, Anthony Albanese, joins me on the phone. Mr. Albanese. Good morning.

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

HOST: Now, where has this policy come from.?

ALBANESE: Look this is this common sense. This is a government that used economic incentives in a range of ways. Remember the baby bonus. And remember, of course, the Social Security minister, his name was Scott Morrison, who introduced No Jab, No Pay to receive childcare rebates, to receive Family Tax Benefit support. This is something that is happening overseas. Incentives are being offered everything from cash, to lotteries, to chickens in Indonesia, to eggs in Hong Kong, to cows in Bangladesh, to potential free spots at tertiary institutions in states in the US. Common Sense shows you that we're going to struggle at that last bit, and we need to speed it up. This is a race, it that always was. Most Australians this morning, are waking up in lockdown.

HOST: Now, have we seen that these have worked in other countries? Have you seen that that vaccination rate with incentives has increased?

ALBANESE: That right. That is what the evidence says. And that that's why this government introduced the No Jab, No Pay policy. We know that economic incentives are motivators. They probably won't impact those people who are anti-vaxxers who say, “we're never going to get vaccinated”. But for those people who are saying "oh yeah, when I get around to it, or people who just need to have a conversation started with their friends, with their mates, then there's no doubt that it could make a positive difference. And what's more, there's no downside here. We're in an economic downturn this quarter. It's likely that the economy will shrink, we will need economic stimulus. Economics 1A again, and an economic stimulus tied to a positive health outcome just makes sense.

HOST: How much does Labor expected this incentive scheme would cost?

ALBANESE: If absolutely everyone did it. It would be a cost of $6 billion, if absolutely everyone, 100% of people who were eligible got their jabs. If 80%, which is the target you just spoke of, then the cost would be $5 billion. The cost of the lockdown at the moment, when you have that many Australians locked down, is at least $3.8 billion a week, every week.

HOST: What do you think the resistance of the federal government is to incentivizing vaccine rollout?

ALBANESE: Well, Lieutenant General Frewen stated this week very clearly that he certainly has positive ideas as he called this, on the table. We know that they've actually explored these ideas including the idea of lotteries, which would be everyone who gets a jab goes in a pool basically and someone gets picked out and gets a large cash prize. The $300 cash payment is far fairer. It's across the board, that this government just didn't recognise the idea that you can set up a fund that doesn't decide things based upon marginal electorates or is based upon mates. This applies to absolutely everyone. Scott Morrison's first knee jerk response is always to say no to a positive idea. He said no to wage subsidies last year, and he only moved on JobKeeper after the queues formed around the Centrelink offices. We need to move now.

HOST: What about people that have already had already been vaccinated? Will they be retrospectively awarded the payment?

ALBANESE: Absolutely. We want to reward good behaviour. The idea that I put forward is a positive one, it was constructive, it would apply across the board and it will be simple. You get the jab, you get $300 whether you're anyone in Australia who does it, Australian citizens overseas, as well, would be eligible.

HOST: Mr. Albanese to another issue related to COVID. ABC is reporting this morning that more than 50 Australians have died of COVID-19 while overseas and we understand three of those people were registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs to come home. Do you feel more should be done to bring stranded Aussies home in this pandemic?

ALBANESE: Oh, absolutely. The Prime Minister said that all Australians would be brought home by Christmas. He said that last year. And clearly, I don't know what Christmas he was talking about. But it didn't happen. There's 36,000 Australians are stranded overseas. These figures represent a tragedy. The government had two jobs this year. They had to fix out the rollout of the vaccine. And they simply didn't order enough vaccines early enough. And they needed to fix national quarantine. They're still not moving on purpose-built quarantine facilities so that people can come home safely. And I note this, that our Olympians have lifted the country up, it must be said, over the past 10 days, they have done such a fantastic job. Guess what, when they come back, they're going to Howard Springs outside of Darwin. Because it's safe. Why is it we're still putting people in CBDs, in the middle of our capital cities in hotels that have ventilation systems that mean that these places have been the result of 28 separate outbreaks. Including outbreaks that are currently shutting down the country. We need to move on this. And why the government is so stubborn, is beyond my comprehension. There's nothing underway in New South Wales at the moment for purpose-built quarantine facilities.

HOST: Mr Albanese, we've got a text coming in from Jindabyne who asked does Mr. Albanese think Australians are too stupid to recognise the need for vaccination offer of a payment is an insult to our collective intelligence for sure cover costs for people who need support to get a vaccination. What do you say to that?

ALBANESE: I say that the Liberal government must have thought Australians needed incentives, that they were too dumb to have babies when they introduced the Baby Bonus. You know, the fact is that this Prime Minister, who used very similar rhetoric, introduced the No Jab, No Pay. And when he did it in the Parliament in a second reading speech as the Minister for Social Security. He said this is about improving child immunisation rates. Most people will get the jab for all the right reasons to keep themselves, their family, their community safe. I got the job as soon as that was offered, to send that message that people need to get immunised. But the truth is economic incentives do work. We will need economic stimulus. We will need that. The government, you watch, will announce some form of economic stimulus in coming months as they have continually. Why wouldn't you tie it to a positive outcome?

HOST: Mr. Albanese, thank you so much for joining us on ABC breakfast.

ALBANESE: Thanks very much for having me on the programme. Have a great day. And you Anthony

ENDS