'Freedom incentives' - Scott Morrison's mandatory vaccination plan
Under advice from the Behavioural Economics Team, aka 'the Nudge Unit'
A plan was implemented in 2021 to dig Australia out of the hole it had been deliberately put in with restrictions and lockdowns, to facilitate making COVID-19 vaccination “as mandatory as you can possibly make it”, as originally announced by then Prime Minister Scott Morrison in August 2020.1
This was the ‘National Plan to transition Australia’s National COVID-19 Response’, which was agreed by National Cabinet (the forum of the Prime Minister, Premiers and Chief Ministers “to meet and work collaboratively”).
As the ABC reported on 2 July 2021:2
National Cabinet has agreed to a four-stage plan that would see Australia transform into a vaccinated nation that manages COVID-19 with few restrictions.
According to the ABC report, Scott Morrison said:
If you get vaccinated you get to change how we live as a country. You get to change how you live in Australia.
And ‘changes’ will be reliant upon vaccination rates…
sending a clear message to Australians that eased restrictions and a post-COVID world are directly linked to their choice to get vaccinated.
Freedom from restrictions…
would be incumbent upon Australians choosing to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Note the words ‘choice’ and ‘choosing’…
On 2 July 2021, the ABC reported:
Just over 8.3 per cent of Australians over 16 have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 30 per cent have received at least one shot.
But the National Plan to open up demanded that ≥80% of people (16+) must be vaccinated with two doses of COVID-19 vaccine to release people from restrictions around the country.
The Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government, led by the Health Department and officials in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet - aka ‘the Nudge Unit’ - had laid out the plan to achieve a high vaccination rate.
The plan was to offer ‘freedom incentives’ to make people get vaccinated.
Incentives were the way to go, but as reported in The Australian on 2 August 20213, the Behavioural Economics Team report advised the government “financial incentives run the risk of increasing people’s risk perceptions if it’s construed people have to be ‘paid’ to get the vaccine…”
Instead, The Australian notes:
Relaxing restrictions for vaccinated people, rather than financial incentives, was identified as a successful tool for governments with vaccination rates in France spiking after Emmanuel Macron on July 12 threatened to restrict access to public places for unvaccinated residents.
The key message from the Behavioural Economics Team was:
Providing vaccinated people with personal freedoms, and restricting the freedoms of those who aren’t, is likely to drive vaccine uptake.
The Daily Mail Australia took up the story on 3 August 20214:
Mr Morrison said exemptions from health restrictions would likely be provided for fully-vaccinated residents during phase two of the four-phase reopening plan.
In audio obtained by Daily Mail Australia last week, the Prime Minister hinted at bringing in restrictions for Australians who refuse to get the vaccine - keeping them out of venues such as pubs and restaurants…
And so it came to pass…
The ‘C. Vaccination Consolidation Phase’ of the National Plan promised to:
Exempt vaccinated residents from all domestic restrictions.
This tactic adopted the Behavioural Economics Team/Nudge Unit’s advice…
Providing vaccinated people with personal freedoms, and restricting the freedoms of those who aren’t, is likely to drive vaccine uptake.
Australia was transformed into a two tier society based on vaccination status, with the ‘vaccinated’ released from restrictions, while the ‘unvaccinated’ were discriminated against, punished by being excluded from society.
Discrimination and division among the people were imposed by treacherous governments in our supposed ‘free country’.
This was accomplished with the collaboration of a medical profession which did not have the integrity to stand firm against mandatory medical interventions.
Never forget it was Scott Morrison, as then Prime Minister of Australia, who was the leader of this ‘National Plan’.
Morrison led the Premiers and Chief Ministers in National Cabinet, and the Chief Medical Officer and the AHPPC, to implement what had been his plan from the beginning…
The National Plan for COVID-19 vaccination to be “as mandatory as you can possibly make it”.
But in the process Scott Morrison led the destruction of valid voluntary informed consent for vaccination, see:
* Thanks to Kate Smyth and Emma McArthur for their discussion and input on this topic.
References:
Scott Morrison expects COVID-19 vaccine will be ‘as mandatory as you can possibly make it’. 3AW Melbourne, 19 August 2020: https://www.3aw.com.au/scott-morrison-expects-covid-19-vaccine-will-be-as-mandatory-as-you-can-possibly-make-it/
How National Cabinet wants to ditch lockdowns and open borders as COVID vaccination rates rise. ABC, 2 July 2021: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-02/covid-lockdown-vaccination-phases-national-cabinet/100262808
‘Freedom incentives’ to spur vaccination as Scott Morrison rejects cash. The Australian, 2 August 2021.
Bans on unvaccinated at public events and businesses are among ‘freedom incentives’ to pressure Australians to get a Covid jab - after Scott Morrison admitted ‘time will come’ when only vaxxed may be allowed in pubs. Daily Mail, 3 August 2021: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9852411/Australians-given-freedom-incentives-convince-coronavirus-vaccine-end-lockdown.html
Behavioural team, nudge unit team - the very names are abhorrent to any free society, if this exists then we are not free. It was decided by the people who are in power that regardless of what free autonomous people wanted we would be made to do what the state ordered either by overt means or stealth tactics. Their power was no longer focused on our environment and the things around us it advanced into our body. At that level we are being physically bound to the will of the government with power over what goes into our body. Once they edged that door open then all bets are off, for people holding the power they never stand still but are always advancing.
I was born free. Nobody grants me freedom Mr. Morrison….Nobody.