Health

Parents who don’t vaccinate their kids to have support payments slashed

Jul 02, 2018

The government will strip $28 a fortnight from parents who don't vaccinate their children.

Australia’s vaccination laws are set to become even stricter. From now on, parents who refuse to vaccinate their children will lose part of their fortnightly family support payment, Minister for Social Services Dan Tehan announced on Sunday.

Under the Coalition’s No Jab, No Pay program, Family Tax Benefit Part A payments will be reduced by about $28 a fortnight for each unvaccinated child.

“Immunisation is the safest way to protect children from vaccine-preventable diseases,” Tehan said in a statement. “Parents who don’t immunise their children are putting their own kids at risk as well as the children of other people.”

The Turnbull Government provided more than $14 million towards free “catch-up” vaccinations in its 2017 budget. It also provided $5.5 million over three years to encourage Australian parents and carers to vaccinate their children.

Exemptions have been allowed for children assessed to have natural immunity or for whom vaccinations may prove harmful.

“Since the Turnbull Government introduced No Jab, No Pay in 2016 about 246,000 children and their families have taken action to ensure they meet the immunisation requirements,” Tehan said. “The change to No Jab, No Pay provides a constant reminder for parents to keep their children’s immunisation up to date.”

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) sees no problem with this new measure, saying vaccinating children is a public health priority.

“No Jab, No Pay is a success,” Former AMA President Dr Michael Gannon said in 2017. “There’s another 200,000 kids that are protected as individuals, and that, in an exponential way, increases the protection afforded to other children in playgroups and schools from serious infectious disease.

“I think how much better we can do is difficult to know. We know that there is something like one to two per cent of Australian families that you will never reach. They live in a fantastic world of thinking that there’s some broad conspiracy with vaccination. But what we always strive to do is to reach that three, four, five, six per cent of vaccine-hesitant parents.”

Crown Princess Mary of Denmark is also urging everyone to join the movement and vaccinate their children.

“The effect of persistent rumours can cause some people to delay or decide against vaccination, but no rumour can be as compelling as the simple truth that vaccines save lives,” she said.