TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION
SHADOW MINISTER FOR WOMEN
MEMBER FOR SYDNEY
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
4BC DRIVE WITH SCOTT EMERSON
WEDNESDAY, 4 AUGUST 2021
SUBJECTS: Lockdowns, vaccination rates; Labor’s $300 vaccination incentive proposal.
SCOTT EMERSON, HOST: We're joined Now by the Shadow Minister of Education, Shadow Minister for Women, Tanya Plibersek. Tanya, last week I was consulting with you over the lockdown there in Sydney and now we've joined you.
TANYA PLIBERSEK, SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, SHADOW MINISTER FOR WOMEN: I'm really sorry that you have. It's just so hard on people. I know we're still doing it very tough here in Sydney. You know, in my electorate a lot of people live on their own so they're feeling lonely; and we've got a lot of people living in apartment buildings as well. So it's a lot of time inside on your own and, of course, the businesses locally are just really struggling. They just got through the last lot of lockdown and they’re really hit for six again and the truth is the only way we're going to get through this is to get more people vaccinated so that we can open up again. So my plea to people is please, please get vaccinated if you can. I had my second job of AstraZeneca yesterday.
EMERSON: How are you feeling?
PLIBERSEK: A little bit sore in the arm, but I'm but pretty good actually.
EMERSON: That's not too bad at all, a bit of a sore arm. You get that from the flu jab anyhow.
PLIBERSEK: I actually had a sorer arm from the flu jab this year. I have been great both times, I felt fine - absolutely fine. I know some people had a bit of a rough trot, but I have been very lucky and my Mum also had AstraZeneca. She was fine too. It's good.
EMERSON: That message has got to get out there to get more people vaccinated. We had a bit of a mixed message up here with AstraZeneca with our Chief Health Officer, Jeanette Young saying, well in June, she said: ‘if you're under 60, don't have the AstraZeneca at all. I don't want to be the Chief Health officer that he sees an 18 year old die from blood clots from having AstraZeneca’. She doubled down early in the week. But yesterday we started seeing a bit of movement on it saying: ‘now consult your doctor’. I think the reality is get the vaccine you can at the moment and just get the jab.
PLIBERSEK: Look, I had a really good talk to my GP about this, about the minute number of people who have sadly died or had other severe reactions to the vaccine and he was very reassuring. He reminded me that I fly all the time. I've got a bigger chance of getting a blood clot from flying. I was on the pill for years - I had a chance getting a blood clot from that. I drive, I've probably got a bigger chance of being in a car crash than I've got having a negative reaction to this vaccine and given what's happening in Sydney now where we're seeing a lot of community transmission, there are a lot of people out in the community every day. We know there are people out in the community who don't know that they've got Covid-19, who could very easily pass it on without being aware. I thought the very clear message to me was get the jab, get the jab.
EMERSON: Well let's talk about that in terms of the vaccination rates, the take-up rates at the moment, so we know there's AstraZeneca out there at the moment, probably less Pfizer out there but there's plenty of AstraZeneca out there. We're getting another 150,000 doses of AstraZeneca coming in from the feds to Queensland in the next couple of days. So that is good news. But I did see Labor's policy that Anthony Albanese came out with - this as a the payment of $300 per person if they get fully jabbed. That got a lot of mixed reactions here on 4BC Drive. I have to say, Tanya Plibersek, a lot of people just thought we shouldn't be bribing people to get the jab.
PLIBERSEK: I don't see it as a bribe at all. I think it's a reward to people who have done the right thing and the vast majority of people will get the jab for the same reasons I got it. I want to protect myself - more importantly, I want to protect my family. I want to make sure my 89 year old Mum and my 89 year old mother-in-law are protected. I want to do the right thing for the country. Absolutely, that's why most people will do it, but there is that hesitant group - that last few people who are a bit worried, a bit disorganised, a bit lazy for whatever reason, aren't going to get it; and we know that we need high rates of vaccination before we can reopen our community and our economy like we want to. So getting those last few per cent vaccinated is really important and now if we only gave the vaccine to those - if we ever gave the payment to those people, the last few per cent who didn't want to otherwise get vaccinated or didn't get around to it, how the people feel had done the right thing all the way along? They'd feel pretty ripped off.
The other thing you got to think about, Scott, is this is money that would in our suggestion flow out to people before Christmas. We know that the economy is taking a real hit, small businesses everywhere are really suffering. You get 300 bucks - you go out and spend it, you’re doing a great thing for your local businesses. I was listening to your callers before talking about local businesses really struggling with the lockdown - you have a few people in a household who get 300 bucks each right before Christmas, they will spend it and they'll spend it keeping other Australians in work. Just think of this as a stimulus payment with strings attached.
EMERSON: How much would it cost all up?
PLIBERSEK: $6 billion, if it's as many people get the job as we want.
EMERSON: Because a lot of people say that’s $6 billion we can't afford at the moment. I understand what you're saying about. Do you see this is another form of stimulus package?
PLIBERSEK: I think it's a really important stimulus for the economy. And don't forget these lockdowns are costing, the Australian economy about $2 billion a week; and the human cost of that is people who want to be working, who want to be working more hours, who can't. It's the human cost of that - businesses closing down, people who have worked to build up a family business for 30 years who've just been smashed through no fault of their own, they’ve done everything right and they're struggling to keep the wolves away from the door. Think of the help this will give those businesses when people walk through, walk through the front door, when we're allowed to, and put the cash down on the counter.
EMERSON: Tanya Plibersek, always good to have a chat. I will speak to you again next week.
ENDS
