Covid-19: Bad cop, good cop shift a political landmine for Anthony Albanese

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese. Picture: Gary Ramage

Anthony Albanese has stepped on a landmine of his own making with his $6bn proposal for $300 cash payments for vaccination.

It’s bad policy created for political reasons and could turn out to be bad politics as well.

The Opposition Leader’s surprise plan came as he had Scott Morrison under pressure and was benefiting from attacks on the Prime Minister’s “failure” on the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.

Before parliament resumed on Tuesday, Albanese was in the political ascendancy and Morrison’s leadership was failing after the Delta virus outbreaks and economic lockdowns in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia.

Albanese’s case was that Morrison had failed the “only two jobs” he had in 2021 – to deliver enough vaccines and to prevent quarantine breaches from sparking new outbreaks.

Albanese was also aware that while legitimate campaigns for an opposition, his blaming Morrison made him look negative, carping and a whinger without a positive alternative to what the Coalition was doing.

So without warning or widespread consultation within the ALP, Albanese announced his plan for a $300 payment for every Australian to get fully vaccinated, which he costed at a total of $6bn, including $5bn between now and Christmas.

Albanese enthusiastically described it as positive, constructive, practical and common sense with “no downside” or negative impact.

What’s more, he said it was an economic stimulus for an economy that was “tanking”, enabling people to go out and spend money to offset the crippling cost of lockdowns.

The policy was a hybrid of healthcare and economic stimulus that sounded like a vaccine cash splash of which $2bn would be paid as an “incentive” to already fully vaccinated people. There is also the potential to add $3bn or even $6bn if the cash payments are made for booster shots.

Of course, even if he wins the election next year, Albanese will not have to implement such a plan: it’s all promise and no responsibility because by April-May next year Australians will be as vaccinated as they can be and moving to booster shots.

In pursuit of the positive, Albanese turned away from the advantages of being a small target, having just dumped what he deemed to be policy albatrosses on tax and investment from the previous election, and gave Morrison an opportunity to attack Labor.

The principle of his plan to solve the problem of low vaccine rollout by appealing to hesitant Australians with a cash splash also undermined the principle of his prime attack on Morrison – that vaccine hesitancy is now the problem not vaccine supply.

Albanese’s plan is based on there being sufficient vaccines available to meet the national target of 70 per cent by Christmas. So he is now agreeing with Morrison that the vaccine rollout, while delayed, is expected to be as successful as it can be before the election.

This attempt to shift from being a bad, whingeing cop on the Covid-19 pandemic to a good, positive and policy-bearing cop has been met gratefully and head on with Morrison’s political bad cop.

He had no hesitation is dismissing the plan, citing opposite policy advice that it was a “bad idea”, and then describing it as an “insult” to Australian values, as “game show cash” and a “vote of no confidence” in the people.

A $6bn cash splash also gave him the opportunity to revive memories of Labor’s economic stimulus measures that went too far in the global financial crisis.

Albanese certainly looks more proactive and positive than he was but he now is in a position of defending his own policy and politics.