Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to make my contribution to the second reading debate on the Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Other Legislation Amendment (Further 2008 Budget and Other Measures) Bill 2008. This bill will provide the legislation for certain further budget and other measures affecting the portfolios of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, and Veterans’ Affairs—namely, to pay the maternity immunisation allowance in two instalments and extend the program’s eligibility to ensure equity. The bill will also cease the partner service pension to married partners who are separated but not divorced. Additionally, the bill makes minor and technical amendments to the child support legislation.

These amendments, particularly the maternity immunisation allowance, are extremely important to me because, just like all dads, I am extremely passionate about the health of my kids. I have been lucky enough to be blessed with five healthy children. The health of my kids is not something I take for granted. In fact, every day I think about how lucky I am. I remember that when each of them was a baby I took on board my own involvement in making sure that they did get to the doctor and have their immunisations. Very often the child is not very happy with you after that, so there were always some chocolates and ice-cream or things like that to deaden the pain of the needle. I must admit I used to look away when they put the needle in but I knew that it was for the right cause.

Having doorknocked extensively around my electorate in both Darwin and Palmerston, I know that kids’ health is a passion issue with all families. I think that is true right across the board, right across Australia. It does not matter what side of politics you are on; there are certainly a few not-negotiable issues. One of those issues is the health and safety of our kids. Children’s health and wellbeing is at the forefront of the government’s commitment to the Australian people. That is why the Prime Minister, in his speech setting out our nation’s sights for the future at the Sydney Institute annual dinner this year, proposed affordable parent and child centres for all zero- to five-year-old Australian children—parent and child centres that will provide maternal and child health services such as baby health checks, baby weighing, feeding advice and vaccinations.

We are taking action. Practical examples of our government investing in our children were introduced on 1 July this year when two brand-new initiatives were launched. The Get Set 4 Life, habits for healthy kids guide was the first one. This initiative is a practical user-friendly guide that helps parents help their kids develop healthy habits for life. Also available for parents and carers is the second new initiative: the Healthy Kids Check. Under the Healthy Kids Check, each child starting school will now have access to a free basic health check through Medicare. I know that this initiative has been welcomed in my electorate of Solomon. We have a growing population, particularly in the city of Palmerston, where more than 500 babies were born last year. The checks are to make sure that kids are happy, healthy and ready to learn when they start school. The Healthy Kids Check will be available for all four-year-olds at the request of the parents or carer. This check corresponds with the time of their four-year-olds’ immunisations. Delivered by GPs or practising nurses, it will help make sure kids are on track in their health and wellbeing. I know that those formative years—minus nine months to five years—are very important in the development of children, both in education and health.

These initiatives show that we as a government are serious about the future of our nation, and the future of our nation is in having healthy kids. I know that those opposite will fully support these types of initiatives because this is bipartisan. There are no political barriers between the two major parties on this issue. The budget measure on the maternity immunisation allowance will restructure the allowance. The restructure will improve the program’s effectiveness, not diminish it. It needs to be restructured so that it is more in line with the National Immunisation Program. The maternity immunisation allowance was introduced as a single payment 11 years ago. The allowance is currently paid for children aged between 18 months and two years if they are immunised to the recommended level, or if parents have a formal exemption. This initiative was designed to act as a strong incentive and reminder to parents to immunise their children on time. It is a commendable initiative. However, the program does not provide the same strong incentives for parents when their kids turn four years old and need the booster. In fact, statistics tell us that immunisation rates for Aussie kids are higher when they are aged two than when they start school. This is a problem. Ninety-three per cent of children aged two are fully immunised. This drops to only 88 per cent of kids being fully immunised at the age of six. By bringing this legislation in, the government will certainly be providing an incentive for parents to follow up with their boosters.

As we get busier and more kids arrive—in my case, they kept arriving at a regular interval for a while; I had five under 10 at one stage, but they are all growing well now and they were all immunised as they went through—sometimes we might forget and not follow up with those boosters. So the amendments in this bill will really give people an incentive to make sure that they follow up with boosters for their children.

The proposed changes will increase the incentives, as I have said, to give four-year-olds the recommended booster before they start school. This should result in many Australian children having better overall levels of immunisation. The types of vaccinations that are recommended in the National Immunisation Program currently include measles, mumps, german measles, polio, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough—all serious illnesses that no parent would ever want their children to get.

The good people of Solomon have just had a reminder of the dangers associated with whooping cough. Earlier this year in the Northern Territory we had 12 children diagnosed with whooping cough, and 11 of them had to be hospitalised. The NT government’s Director of the Centre for Disease Control, Dr Vicki Krause, urged parents across the NT to ensure that both they and their children were vaccinated against it. She said:

Infants are the most vulnerable to the complications of whooping cough and it can lead to pneumonia and sometimes death in young babies.

About one in 200 children under the age of six months who develop whooping cough die from pneumonia or brain damage. It is definitely a case where prevention is far better than cure.

This bill proposes that from 2009 the maternity immunisation allowance be divided equally into two payments. The first payment will be paid when the child is aged between 18 months and two years and the second payment will be paid when the child is aged between four years and five years. To ensure no-one is worse off, both instalments will be indexed twice yearly.

Another very important aspect to the bill goes to who is eligible to receive the maternity immunisation allowance. Currently the payable allowance does not accommodate older children adopted from outside Australia. That is hardly fair. That is why in 2005 the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Human Services Inquiry into Overseas Adoption in Australia recommended:

The Minister for Family and Community Services amend the eligibility criteria for the maternity immunisation allowance in the case of children adopted from overseas so the eligibility period is two years after the child’s entry to Australia.

This bill will accommodate the recommendation from the committee and ensure that parents of all children in Australia, irrespective of whether they were born in Australia or are newly arrived through adoption, will be able to obtain the allowance. These changes reinforce the fundamental purposes of the payment, which is to get as many people immunised as possible.

The second part of this bill relates to the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986. The amendment will cease the partner service pension to married partners who are separated but not divorced from their veteran spouse and who have not reached pension age. Under this measure, eligibility for partner service pension will cease 12 months after separation or if the veteran enters into a marriage-like relationship. It should be noted that a spouse who is a member of an illness-separated couple remains the partner of a veteran and therefore does not lose eligibility for partner service pension. A couple who are illness-separated must be unable to live together in the home because of the illness or infirmity of either or both of them. Obviously, certain assessment criteria must be met to ensure eligibility to receive the pension in this situation. The amendments will also set the eligible age at 50 years for the partner service pension for the partner of a veteran who is in receipt of the equivalent of or less than special rate but above general rate disability pension or who has at least 80 impairment points under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act.

Aspects of this bill also relate to child support. On 1 July this year much-needed new reforms to the child support formula commenced. As a result of their introduction anomalies need to be addressed and minor and technical amendments are required. For instance, this bill ensures the Child Support Agency, CSA, can prevent parents with a child support debt from leaving the country without paying or at least ensuring payment arrangements for the debt are made. This is done through departure prohibition orders, or DPOs. The recent amendments which moved the DPO provisions from regulations into primary legislation unintentionally removed the ability for the CSA to issue a DPO for certain registrable overseas maintenance liabilities. The proposed amendments now ensure that the Child Support Agency can apply the same departure prohibition orders to international parents in Australia as it would apply for domestic parents.

Another anomaly that has been identified relates to Child Support Agency decisions about care. The amendments to the legislation will ensure that, in all situations where parents agree on the level of care for a child, that level of care will be reflected accurately in the assessment.

This budget is delivering for the people of Solomon. This budget is good for families and for children in my electorate of Solomon. I encourage those opposite to support the amendments introduced in this bill because they are important amendments aimed at making sure that children are immunised and that they receive their boosters. A healthy society is something that Australia should be striving towards. I commend this bill to the House.

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