Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

They have been considered, and they have not been recommended for cash payments. I can assure you under the national plan there is certainly no suggestion of the types of incentives that he refers to in phase A of the plan. In the ACT and Tasmania more than 50 per cent have had their first doses, and they didn't need a cash splash to get there. The ACT health minister, their colleague in the Labor Party, said, 'This is probably not the most cost effective way, to do incentives.' That was from one of their own people in the ACT administration. The people of the ACT haven't needed a cash splash from the Leader of the Opposition.

The people of the ACT and Tasmania, where Tasmania leads the leaderboard amongst states of getting people vaccinated in this country, didn't need the vote of no confidence in their ability to get vaccines that the Labor Party leader wants to put out there, because Australians know that, if they get vaccinated, they're less likely to get the virus, they're less likely to pass on the virus, they're less likely to be hospitalised with a serious illness, and they're less likely to die. Australians know that getting vaccinated is in their interests, their family's interests, their community's interests and the national interest. They know that. I have confidence in them. I have confidence in them to turn up, as we're seeing them do at record numbers—over 200,000 again yesterday, and those numbers continue to ramp up. The Leader of the Opposition does not believe that the Australian people will turn out and do what is in their health interests, their family's interests and their community's interests. He has issued a vote of no confidence in the people of Australia, a vote of absolute no confidence. On this side of the House we have great confidence in the Australian people. We have great thanks for the sacrifice that they have gone through. The Leader of the Opposition, the Leader of the Labor Party, might think that Australians need to get the cash to get vaccinated, but I think a lot more highly of the Australian people than he does.

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