April 13, 2015
Member for Gippsland Darren Chester has welcomed Federal Government moves to encourage childhood vaccination by linking welfare payments.
From January 1, 2016, child care and family payments will be denied to parents who don’t vaccinate their children. While exemptions on legitimate medical or religious grounds will continue, ‘conscientious objection’ will be removed as an exemption category.
Mr Chester said the new policy reinforced the importance of immunisation and protecting public health.
“Immunisation is an effective way of protecting children against harmful infections before they come into contact with them,” Mr Chester said.
“More than 39,000 children aged under seven are not vaccinated because their parents are vaccine objectors. This is an increase of more than 24,000 children over the past 10 years.
“The choice made by families not to immunise their children is not supported by public policy or medical research nor should such action be supported by taxpayers in the form of child care payments.
“Parents should have confidence that they can take their children to child care or into the community without worrying that they will be at risk of contracting a serious or potentially life-threatening illness.
The changes will apply from the start of next year and apply to Child Care Benefit, Child Care Rebate and Family Tax Benefit Part A end of year supplement.
Existing exemptions on medical or religious grounds will continue, however a religious objection will only be available where the person is affiliated with a religious group where the governing body has a formally registered objection approved by the Government.
While vaccination rates in Australia have increased since the Childhood Immunisation Register was established by the Howard Government in 1996, vaccine objection rates for children under the age of seven have also increased steadily, especially under the conscientious objector category.