Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and I thank the member for Forrest for her comments as well. I too rise to speak on the Australian Immunisation Register and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2017. I am pleased to speak in support of the bill because it is high time that the government took a harder line to ensure that parents can no longer play Russian roulette with their children's health.

I applaud the minor amendment to the bill that adds four medical specialities to the list of suitably trained and qualified experts who can grant vaccination exemptions. They are, quite rightly, paediatricians, public health physicians, infectious disease physicians and clinical immunologists. Labor agrees that these people are among the very few qualified to make the potentially life-threatening call to not administer a vaccination to a child. It is right and proper that they are also the only people who will now be qualified to tell the government whether children and families have met vaccination requirements. I therefore commend the government for this second minor but positive change to the No Jab, No Pay arrangements. The government must encourage and protect the collective immunity of all Australians, and that's what we're really talking about here.

I'm delighted to report that the high schools of my electorate of Paterson, in Maitland, have vaccination rates among the highest in New South Wales. This is largely due to the efforts of a wonderful woman, my good friend and Labor colleague Councillor Loretta Baker. Loretta is a candidate for the 2017 Maitland City Council mayoral election, which is coming up very shortly. In her day-to-day life, however, Loretta is a community health nurse whose work involves a great deal of time vaccinating children in schools. Indeed, she has vaccinated my own children. Apparently, she doesn't hurt a bit! In Paterson, it appears that many people are embracing the message that a failure to vaccinate is a threat to public health thanks to the education and leadership of people such as Loretta Baker. Francis Greenway High School at Beresfield achieved a 100 per cent vaccination rate for the first shot to protect against human papillomavirus, 98 per cent for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, and 90 per cent for the shot that wards off chickenpox. That's well worth the investment to any parent who's ever endured chickenpox, especially over the summer. Across town, Maitland Grossmann High School recorded 90 per cent uptake for HPV vaccinations, 91 per cent for DPT and 79 per cent for chickenpox.

However, many parents in Paterson recently received bulletins from their local primary schools warning of the high rates of influenza and also the symptoms of whooping cough—yes, that's right. In 2017 there are people in our communities who have whooping cough—pregnant mothers who have whopping cough and tiny babies whose bodies are racked by the incessant, life-draining and life-threatening whoop. This can occur even among those who have been immunised, as vaccines may be ineffective in a small percentage of the population. That's why it is so desperately important that all who are medically able to receive immunisation do so. It is for the good of our community—our herd. As leaders, our goal should be to eradicate life-threatening diseases, not just in our electorate, state or nation, but across our globe. This should be our mission. The World Health Organization recognises the role of vaccinations in helping achieve the 2030 UN sustainable development goals. Here in Australia, the Immunise Australia Program is fundamental.

However, we are concerned that some recent commentary around vaccinations and purported links to autism might undermine confidence in the program. Even by engaging on the topic we encourage the illusion that there remain two sides to the argument. In turn, this creates more material that becomes cannon fodder for vaccine sceptics. The debate about whether vaccines are life saving or life threatening should have ended long ago. I believe it takes a special mix of arrogance and ignorance for a person to believe they know better than a highly trained medical professional. But, as Dr Michael Gannon recently said, about eight per cent of the population are so-called 'vaccine hesitant'. That means they are looking for any hint that might cause them to stray from a vaccination program. It is absolutely essential that we have accurate information and that members of the public have access to this information too.

Science provides us with answers that are tested and agreed upon by people who devote their whole lives to studying certain areas of expertise, and these experts have determined that the only people who should be eligible for a medical vaccination exemption are those who truly need it. This includes those who have a history of anaphylactic reactions to components in the vaccine or those who are temporarily immunocompromised. Having an innate suspicion of mass vaccination programs isn't an adequate excuse, and neither is spending an evening with 'Dr Google' or buying into viral Facebook tin-hat conspiracy theories that play on parents' fears for the safety of their child. It is imperative that the Prime Minister puts an end to the politics of fear. Again and again we see this government and its allies drive dodgy agendas pulling the wool over the eyes of the good people of Australia.

Fear is such a powerful motivator. The member for Wentworth and others have been very busy during the past couple of weeks, fanning huge clouds of fear around Labor's plan for a more equitable tax system. They've been largely silent on and, as such, permissive of Senator Hanson's ignorance and vitriol towards our residents. The Prime Minister has stayed shtum as his preference deal partner has linked vaccines to cancer and autism. That's right—Senator Hanson, such a multi-skilled purveyor of expertise, somehow became a televised expert on the subject of vaccines. She spoke about a non-existent test for vaccine allergies and encouraged parents to use it. She linked vaccines to both cancer and autism. These unfounded and downright dangerous comments—which, not surprisingly, echo those of Donald Trump—were made to a potentially national audience. Senator Hanson later backed down on her comments about the non-existent vaccine allergy test. Medical experts decried her comments and described them as ignorant and dangerous. But the damage was done. Every time we allow the vaccination debate to reignite, we give parity to a non-argument. Every time we allow this ridiculous position air, we give a patina of credibility to it. We pretend there are two sides of the argument. We create more material that populates the ethernet and eventually becomes the cannon fodder of the vaccine sceptics.

As science has demonstrated, the debate about whether vaccines are life threatening or life saving should have ended long ago. The debate is over. The science is in. The evidence that vaccines save lives is overwhelming. We should not be having this debate. It is time that the government, once and for all, moves beyond the uninformed discussions that continue to put our most vulnerable at risk. Dr Michael Gannon has referred to vaccinations as the most important public health program we have. Yet this government continues to be far too tolerant of those who encourage opting out of children's vaccination programs due to conscientious objections. Even today, as I speak, there is no national approach guiding childcare centres regarding accepting enrolments of children who are not immunised. While some states and territories have laws that allow centres to turn away children who are not immunised, it is not a universal approach. That is simply not good enough, particularly when you consider that, in May 2013, the member for Warringah, then the opposition leader, made a commitment that he would work with states and territories to develop a uniform approach. Yes, that was 3½ years ago, and what has transpired? Very little. While parents and health services around the globe plead for international aid programs to help vaccinate children from preventable diseases, here in Australia we have a government that remains tolerant of a populist and ridiculous wave that persists in linking vaccines to illness.

I put it to you that it is deadset wrong for the government to permit a culture of fear and ignorance to fester around an issue of life and death. The government must adopt an absolute position. Just weeks ago in Charlestown Square, which is a popular shopping centre in the Hunter Valley frequented by a lot of my constituents from Paterson, the Australian Vaccination-sceptics Network dropped in for a screening of Vaxxed. Although the antivaxxers plugged it as a documentary, I refer to it as a mockumentary. Its central premise is that vaccines against measles, mumps and rubella may be leading to an autism epidemic. People who came along to the $25-per-adult screening also got to participate in a question-and-answer with one of the biologists featured in the mockumentary. A roaming camera crew filmed attendees and recorded their vaccine injury stories. This was appalling: sad and angry people venting their fears and suspicions, only to have this private grief and fear captured by the unscrupulous as further evidence of the evils of vaccination. It was not just in the Hunter Valley either. Only last week there was an antivaccination film screened in central Melbourne.

It is critically important that the government does all it can to counter movements such as the Australian Vaccination-sceptics Network. Our leaders at local, state and federal levels must be united in their commitment to educate and inform parents about the deadly risks associated with the failure to vaccinate children. Labor wrote to the Prime Minister in March to encourage decisive and urgent action. While we are pleased that the government is finally revisiting the No Jab, No Pay arrangements, we are disappointed that more resources have not been allocated. We must refute the uninformed discussions that are taking place in our communities about vaccines. It is essential that we educate people about the inherent risk of these preventable diseases and protect the health of our population. If the antivaccine proponents shout loudly, we must shout louder. When uninformed views make their way into mainstream discussions, we must draw on science and refute them absolutely. If there are mockumentaries and public forums fanning fear about Australia's world-class immunisation program, we must counter them with equally emotive and powerful messages of truth. We must work to ensure that the dangerous misinformation peddled by the antivaccination proponents never, ever takes the place of proven scientific advice.

During this education program, we will have the support of the Australian Medical Association, the Australian Academy of Science, Australia's medical colleges, nurses, and the Public Health Association of Australia. We all agree that it is critically important that the public continues to be educated about the importance of vaccines. So, while Labor welcomes a federally funded public education campaign, we call on the government to allocate more resources to this critical initiative. We must eliminate any confusion, and give people access to information across a variety of channels. Parents must know the deadly risks of failing to vaccinate their children.

As the daughter of a polio survivor, I have a very personal interest in this. My father, who passed away last October, had infantile paralysis, as they called it in 1931, as a two-year-old boy. It did not deter him. His right hand was slightly less strong than his left, and he was a man who worked physically hard with tools all of his life. He never sought any sort of compensation or payment for what was a disability, but he worked so hard his whole life to put that aside and just be an incredible contributor to our society.

I say to anyone who fears vaccination: you should fear polio and the other scourge diseases that could wrack your child in a much greater way than the marvellous science that has gone into immunisation. It is the great gift of human medicine over the last 100 years and we should all be embracing it. I do thank the government. I urge them to put more resources into this. It is our responsibility to support parents and make sure they vaccinate their children. Thank you.

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