Australian opposition proposes cash incentives for COVID-19 vaccines amid lockdown in Sydney

CANBERRA - Australia's opposition proposed a cash incentive for Australians to get vaccinated on Tuesday when the country's most populous city of Sydney continued to battle the outbreak of COVID-19 triggered by the Delta variant.

Anthony Albanese, the leader of the Labor Party, on Tuesday revealed a plan to offer every Australian who is fully vaccinated by Dec 1 a 300 Australian dollar ($220.8) cash bonus.

The proposal would cost an estimated 6 billion AUD ($4.4 billion) but Albanese argued that constant lockdowns across the country were costing significantly more.

"That's a small amount compared with the 2 billion AUD ($1.4 billion) a week that these mass lockdowns are costing our national economy," he told the Nine Network television.

"So this would be good for our health but also would provide a much-needed stimulus at a time when workers and small business is really struggling to get by as a result of these lockdowns."

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday revealed details of a four-phase pathway out of the coronavirus pandemic.

Under the plan, Australians would be granted greater travel freedoms when 80 percent of the adult population is fully vaccinated.

As of Monday, about 19.2 percent of Australian adults had received two vaccine doses.

In a statement on Tuesday, Albanese said that cash incentives would help Australia reach 80 percent coverage earlier.

"The faster this is achieved, the faster the recovery as we emerge from lockdowns that are bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars a day from the nation's finances," he said.

"Now that Australians are relying on Scott Morrison to do his job and rollout the vaccines, we are coming last in the developed world."

Responding to the proposal, Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said it "won't work."

"Our approach has been to be guided by principles, principles that making sure spending is targeted, it is proportionate, it is focused on getting the exact outcomes that are necessary," he told Nine.

As of Monday afternoon, there had been 34,611 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia, and the number of locally acquired cases in the previous 24 hours was 222, according to the latest figures from the Department of Health.