Labor Wanna Give $300 to People Who Get Fully Vaccinated by December

Wanna make some moolah and protect your health?

It would be an understatement to say that Australia’s vaccine rollout has been a bit of a disaster. Not only is the country experiencing a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic with the delta variant, but only 15.4 per cent of the country has been vaccinated, and it’s already August.

Given the federal government's mixed messaging about the COVID vaccines, a lot of Aussies are feeling a bit apprehensive about getting the jab or have already decided that they’re not going to get it at all.

Of course—as per the government's health advice—we recommend that you should get the COVID-19 vax as soon as you can.

However, encouragement from just us or the government might not be enough for some people, which is why the Labor party is suggesting a cheeky $300 payout to everyone who gets the jab by the 1 December 2021.

Now that’s an incentive and a half.

The plan for this idea is to give young Aussies the motivation to go and get vaccinated as soon as they can, now that Australia has more than enough of the AstraZeneca vaccine to go around. In fact, there are over 3 million AZ doses ready to go for patients who want it.

Of course, the official health advice does recommend that people under 40 do not get the AZ jab, but young people can still get it if they’re comfortable with the extremely rare risks (have a chat with your GP if you’re keen to get AZ).

Labor leader Anthony Albanese explained that the rollout needs to move faster in order to reach the government's end of year targets.

"The government has guaranteed that Australia will have more than enough vaccines to meet the 80 per cent target by 1 December," Mr Albanese said in a statement.

"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."

I support Albanese/Labor’s $300 incentive.

If it encourages more people to get vaccinated sooner, we reduce the need for lockdowns & the cost they have, plus that $300 extra each we can spend at local small businesses. That’ll help locked down ones once they’re open. #auspol

— Rhys Parton ⚫️🟡🔴 - Bring Them #HomeToBilo (@RhysParton) August 2, 2021

Of course, these $300 incentives will culminate in a $6 billion bill, which Labor is insisting will go straight back into the economy real quick.

Despite the push from Labor, the Liberal government has called the idea “unnecessary.”

"We looked at it and the evidence says it's unnecessary," Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said.

"We're seeing daily records set in the number of Australians turning out and getting vaccinated.

"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 [should] get vaccinated is to protect their health and the health of their fellow Australians."

With labor suggesting vaccine incentives of $300 why not make it more Willy Wonka like and just say 1 vaccinated person in every state wins $50 million.
(or alternatively the incentive could just be not dying of covid)

— Josh Earl host of Don't You Know Who I Am? (@MrJoshEarl) August 3, 2021

Except, Labor have said that if you’re fortunate enough to have already had the jab, you would still get the suggested $300 in yo’ wallet as well. 

As per the government's four-phase transition plan out of the pandemic, incentives may be included in the rollout once 70 per cent of eligible Aussies are vaxxed. So it’s on the cards, but it might be a while away.

Header Image: Facebook (@anthonyalbanese) and Apple