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Labor Wants To Give Aussies $300 Each As An Incentive To Get Vaccinated

Labor Wants To Give Aussies $300 Each As An Incentive To Get Vaccinated

Anthony Albanese reckons it will help stimulate the economy when it's needed the most and could do a lot of good for the country.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

Labor has come up with a plan to encourage Australians to get vaccinated against the coronavirus faster.

There are loads of places who have offered incentives to get the Covid-19 jab and it's no secret that Australia needs to up its game.

As a result, the Opposition is keen on slinging $300 to every fully vaxxed Aussie by the end of the year.

Leader Anthony Albanese reckons it will help stimulate the economy when it's needed the most and could do a lot of good for the country.

"They will spend it, creating and supporting jobs in their local communities, supporting economic activity, given that September has seen, of course, because of these lockdowns in the September quarter, it's likely to be negative. And businesses and workers are really struggling," he said.

"This pandemic has seen all sorts of one-offs. And that's what we've done. We've done that. But the truth is, the government had two jobs this year, the rollout of the vaccine and national quarantine.

PA

"We have a lockdown in Queensland again, at the moment, because of a failure of hotel quarantine, we need to get this right. We need to build national quarantine facilities that are purpose built, and we need to roll out the vaccine and get those rates up."

Anyone who has received both doses of the vaccine by December 1 would be entitled to the cash, which they could use for whatever they want.

While few people would object to the idea of free money, it doesn't sound like the government is crash hot on the idea.

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said it was an 'insult' to think Australians need an incentive to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

"We looked at it, and the evidence says it's unnecessary and unlikely to work," Senator Birmingham told ABC in relation to incentives.

"If you look at the different age cohorts, the over 70s, we're now exceeding 79 per cent of over 70s had their first dose. So, if you look right through all Australians over the age of 16, 41 per cent of all Australians over the age of 16 have turned out for their first dose.

"It's clearly unnecessary in the sense that Australians are responding. They do want to get their vaccines.

"It's a bit insulting to the many millions of Australians who are already doing the right thing, who are planning on doing the right thing, and know full well the reason they could get vaccinated is to protect their health and the health of their fellow Australians."

Nearly 40 per cent of the country has received at least one dose of the vaccine and more than 18 per cent are fully vaxxed.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Australia