Anthony Albanese to propose $300 reward for those fully vaccinated by December

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham has slammed Anthony Albanese’s proposed novel solution to boost vaccination rates - a cash payment to get fully jabbed - as ‘insulting’ to those who’ve already had an injection.

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham has slammed a federal Labor proposal to give Australians a cash incentive for getting vaccinated, calling it “insulting”.

“The evidence says this is unnecessary and won’t work,” Mr Birmingham said on the Today Show Tuesday morning.

“Frankly, it’s insulting to the many millions of Australians who’ve already turned out to get a jab, and they’ve done so because they know that this is the best way to protect their lives, the lives of their loved ones and the lives of the rest of the community.”

“It just looks like the same tired old Labor, which is just to throw money at a problem rather than actually to work through the hard evidence and the difficult decisions,” he said.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese is offering payments for those who are vaccinated. Picture: Liam Kidston

Under the plan fully vaccinated Australians would get an instant $300 cash payment from a Labor government, with leader Anthony Albanese pledging to fork out up to $6 billion if he becomes prime minister by December.

Mr Albanese will call on Scott Morrison to offer every Australian man, woman and child $300 each if they receive their second Covid-19 jab by December 1.

Should a federal election be held before then, Mr Albanese would honour his commitment and pay out the cash retrospectively.

With about 20 million Australians expected to be eligible for the jab by the end of the year, the massive incentive would cost the budget bottom line about $6 billion.

“The government has failed on its two jobs this year, the rollout of the vaccine and fixing quarantine,” Mr Albanese said.

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham says the proposal is “insulting”.

“It needs to use every measure at its disposal to protect Australians and our economy.”

Labor’s health spokesman Mark Butler said the Covid-19 vaccination program was a “race Australians can no longer afford to lose”.

“This ($300 cash payment) support would be a further incentive for Australians to be fully vaccinated and would deliver a much-needed shot in the arm for businesses and workers struggling from lockdowns,” he said.

Mr Butler said Australia must reach 80 per cent of adults vaccinated.

“The faster this is achieved, the faster the recovery as we emerge from the lockdowns that are bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars a day from the nation’s finances,” he said.

The policy announcement came amid concerns Labor had until now been spending too much time emphasising early rollout failures and not enough encouraging Australians to get the jab.

Liberal MP for Reid in Sydney’s inner west, Dr Fiona Martin, said Monday that she was worried that a series of negative social media posts about the vaccine rollout had potentially encouraged hesitancy because they did not focus on urging people to get the jab – particularly younger Australians who were recently given access to AstraZeneca shots.

“Since the commencement of the vaccine rollout the Opposition leader has posted over 100 negative posts on Facebook criticising the rollout compared to just 10 promoting the rollout,” Dr Martin, a registered ­psychologist, said.

Queues of people lining up to get the Covid-19 Vaccine at the Olympic Park Vaccination Hub in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

She said an analysis of Mr Albanese’s Facebook page found that until a post Saturday encouraging people to book their shot, he had only posted once on February 23 pointing people to the Department of Health’s Covid vaccination website.

Many other Labor frontbenchers have been similarly negative, choosing to focus mostly on rollout problems in their public statements.

However, other members of the Labor leadership team, including Senator Kristina Keneally, deputy opposition leader Richard Marles, and Sydney MP Tanya Plibersek, have posted about getting their jabs on social media, an act which is widely considered helpful to increasing uptake.

Originally published as Anthony Albanese to propose $300 reward for those fully vaccinated by December