SUBJECTS: Labor’s $300 COVID-19 vaccination incentive; COVID outbreaks around Australia; vaccine rollout; Newspoll; Labor’s policy agenda; next Federal election. 

LAUREN TEMUSKOS, HOST: Albo, what's this chat about $300 making their way into our bank accounts should we be fully vaccinated?

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Well, I've put forward a plan which is everyone who is fully vaccinated by December 1 should receive a $300 cash payment as both a reward for those people who've been vaccinated already, but also as an incentive for those people who are sitting at home and saying, ‘Well, I will get vaccinated tomorrow or next week or next month’, but never get around to it. Give them a bit of a nudge. But also, the economy needs a bit of injection as well. And this $300 would be spent there and around Geelong for payments in local small businesses, in cafes, in places when they're all opened up, help give the economy a bit of a boost in the lead-up to Christmas.

TEMUSKOS: Are there any other things that have been put forward for the fully vaccinated like, I don't know, cool t-shirts, something better than that, milkshakes, free milkshakes?

ALBANESE: Around the world, there's all sorts of incentives. There's free beer in various places. In the US, some of the states are doing tuition fees, getting that paid for the universities. In Indonesia, they are giving out chickens. In Hong Kong, you get eggs. In Bangladesh, you can go in a lottery to get a cow.

TEMUSKOS: I would love a cow.

ALBANESE: You'd love a cow? Where would you keep it?

TEMUSKOS: At home.

ALBANESE: Fair enough. There are incentives all around the world. In New South Wales on Sunday, the state government worked with sporting teams, they had various incentives. If you came along and got your jab wearing your footy jumper or netball gear, you got into a draw and prizes given from sporting clubs to encourage people. There are incentives all around the world, except for here in Australia. And I think that given our vaccination rates are just over 50 per cent, first dose, we do need to lift it up. It is the key to getting out.

TOM LEWIS, HOST: Albo, we both had our first shots in recent weeks. And sure, that's fair enough. I am 100 per cent on board with finding ways to encourage people to get vaccinated. So anything has got to be a help. But the fact that there's no supply, we're both really struggling now to get our second shot, and chances are we might not be able to get it before the start of December. Can we still have $150?

ALBANESE: Well, supply, hopefully, will get better. That's been the big problem of course. The Morrison Government just didn't order enough vaccines. Simple as that. So they weren't here. We were running absolutely last in the developed world. And Australians get vaccinated. Our kids get immunised. We have relatively high take-up. But the supply problems were a big issue. And that's the other thing. For those people who've tried to book over and over again, and friends of mine are in that position, and they sort of gave up for a while there and I've encouraged any of them who mentioned it to me, I've said, ‘Don't give up, book and get vaccinated’. It's a way, as well, of saying, ‘Hey, you've done the right thing, we know it's been hard and because of that you deserve a reward as well for persevering in spite of the stuff up with the vaccine supply’.

LEWIS: Well, hopefully we do get more vaccines soon. The figures out this week, Albo, show you behind as preferred leader but the Labor Party ahead in two-party preferred, which is a very similar position that big, bad, bustling, Bill Shorten found himself in a couple of years back. And he managed to cook it. You saw that firsthand. What have you taken from that experience? And we've got the election coming up sometime down the track. It is on the horizon. How are you going to change your approach to not repeat the mistakes?

ALBANESE: Well, we did a big review. And what it said was we had over 280 costed policies but not enough of a story to tell, not enough of a narrative. So no less ambition, but more focus on a few specific changes that we would make. We want to build back stronger after the pandemic with new industries. We're going to create a National Reconstruction Fund that Richard Marles, one of your local members there, my Deputy, will be in charge of. We want cheaper child care for people. And we have a plan for that out there for all to see. There is a plan for public housing. And importantly, we have a plan for secure work. There are too many people stuck in casual work, some of them not even being paid the minimum wage when it comes to the gig economy. We have a plan for more secure work, so the economy actually works for people rather than the other way around.

LEWIS: Okay, well, we're looking forward to maybe getting you on again to talk more about that stuff and find out exactly what's going on. And I know climate change is going to be a big one for this election. 

ALBANESE: Climate will be big. And we want net zero by 2050 and we also want a path to get there. So we have got a plan for cheaper electric vehicles, we have got a plan for community batteries when it comes to solar, we've got a plan for fixing transmission on the grid so that renewables can really stabilise the grid. And we have a plan for climate change, which means that action on climate change is good for jobs, it's good for lowering energy prices and it's good for fixing the environment. It's something that we've got to do. And it's time that we worked with the Biden administration, the US, and worked with other like-minded countries rather than be a bit of a pariah at the moment where we're sort of sitting in the naughty corner saying no to renewables at the moment.

TEMUSKOS: Hey, Anthony Albanese, it's always a pleasure. Thanks so much for joining us this morning. And if you see Craig Kelly, tell him to stop texting us, please.

ALBANESE: He's a bit of a weirdo, that fellow.

ENDS