Labor: Pay Aussies $300 to get vaccinated

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Labor leader Anthony Albanese believes the federal government should give all people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by December a one-off payment of $300. Albanese says that if all eligible people got vaccinated and spent the $300 payment, it would inject as much as $6 billion into the economy. Finance Minister Simon Birmingham rejects the idea, whereas Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly has supported the idea of incentives:

“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”…

But Senator Birmingham has rejected the idea…”It’s a bit insulting to the many millions of Australians who are already doing the right thing”…

Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly has also previously expressed support for incentives to get the shot.

“I think we really do need to look for incentives, as many incentives as we can for people to become vaccinated,” Professor Kelly said in May.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison also rejects the idea:

Scott Morrison will pursue “freedom incentives” ahead of cash payments under the national cabinet’s four-phase reopening plan, with new research commissioned by the federal government warning that large financial ­incentives and lotteries have had “little to no impact on longer-term vaccination rates”.

The government ­received advice last week outlining the merits of financial ­incentives as other countries, including the US and Britain, announced inducements to maintain the momentum of their vaccination programs.

The research — prepared by the Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government, led by the Health Department and officials at Prime Minister and Cabinet – concluded that financial incentives were “unlikely to drive vaccine uptake in Australia”.

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Labor’s incentive payments are sound policy.

The federal government already forces Family Tax Benefit and Childcare Benefit recipients to meet the Department of Health’s National Immunisation Program Schedule.

The federal government has also provided a non-means tested $245 Maternity Immunisation Allowance to encourage parents to have their children fully vaccinated.

The underlying rationale for these ‘incentives’ is that immunisation is important to protect the individual and society at large, as stated explicitly by the federal Department of Health:

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Immunisation is a simple, safe and effective way of protecting people against harmful diseases before they come into contact with them. Immunisation not only protects individuals, but also others in the community, by reducing the spread of preventable diseases.

Queensland University of Technology professor Adrian Barnett also claims cash incentives are more powerful than other factors in encouraging vaccination – a belief backed by research:

“Overall, across a range of countries, it looks like giving people cash close to the time that you want them to do something works the best,” he said.

“And there does seem to be a dose response as well, so the more cash you give, the more likely people are to change their behaviour.”

Professor Barnett released a study last week with colleague Raymond Duch from Oxford University and other researchers from Oxford and the Vienna University of Economics and Business showing that cash was the best incentive in a randomised trial of people who might get a vaccine against COVID-19.

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The costs of Australia not meeting its vaccine targets and suffering continual lockdowns far exceeds the costs of Labor’s proposal.

There is nothing an Aussie bogan loves more than a fat cheque from the government. What gets paid gets done.

About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.