Malcolm Turnbull pushes for ban on unvaccinated children at childcare centres
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Version 0 of 1. Unvaccinated children would be banned from childcare centres and preschools across the country under a push by the federal government. The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has written to state and territory leaders in a move towards introducing nationally consistent laws to protect children across Australia. He says he will take the policy to the next Council of Australian Governments (Coag) meeting. Under the proposal the immunisation rates of all preschools and daycare centres would be made publicly available to parents and the right to make a formal objection would also end. In the letter to state and territory leaders he writes: “At our next Coag meeting I propose we agree that all jurisdictions implement legislation that excludes children who are not vaccinated from attending childcare or preschool, unless they have a medical exemption. “Vaccination objection is not a valid exemption. We must give parents the confidence that their children will be safe when they attend childcare and preschool. “Parents must understand that if their child is not vaccinated they will be refused attendance or enrolment.” Turnbull told News Corp: “If you don’t vaccinate your child you are not just putting their own life at risk but you are putting everyone else’s children at risk.” The federal health minister, Greg Hunt, said the government’s “no jab, no pay” policy of withholding family payments to parents of unvaccinated children was being supplemented by an “equally tough” policy of “no jab, no play”. “We want to work with all of the states and I’m very confident that they’ll come on board,” he told the Seven Network. “Ultimately it’s about protecting kids against horrendous illnesses that are agonising and potentially in some cases tragic.” The senior Labor MP Mark Butler said the opposition was willing to sit down and talk constructively with the government on the issue. “The AMA says that, next to clean water, this is probably the most important public health measure that a country can have,” Butler told ABC television. “We’ve said that we think there is also some need for consideration of a public advertising campaign at a national level, just to reinforce that public health message that the AMA is talking about.” The government’s push comes after the leader of One Nation, Pauline Hanson, apologised for incorrectly claiming that parents could conduct their own tests to evaluate vaccination safety. Hanson was criticised by the Australian Medical Association and others for giving the impression that vaccines were not safe. She told the ABC’s Insiders program that successive governments had “blackmailed” people into having their children vaccinated because of the policy of withholding childcare fee rebates and welfare payments from parents who don’t have their children fully immunised. Turnbull had attacked Hanson’s comments, which came a week before the Western Australian state election. Her comments were denounced by both the Coalition and Labor, with Hunt saying: “The clear and categorical advice from experts including the chief medical officer, based on decades of research and evidence, is that vaccinations save lives.” |