Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Australian Immunisation Register Bill 2015 and the Australian Immunisation Register (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2015. In doing so, I want to indicate at the outset that Labor strongly supports these bills and in particular their purpose, which is to give us for the first time a truly comprehensive national vaccination register. These bills do this by establishing a new consolidated legislative framework to manage and expand the two existing immunisation registers, the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register and the National Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Program Register. It broadens their scope to capture all vaccinations given from birth to death through general practices and community clinics. Importantly, the expansion of the childhood immunisation register to collect and record vaccinations given to young individuals under the age of 20 will ensure the collection of the data necessary to implement a further government measure, the No Jab, No Pay measure, introduced in separate legislation.

Labor is committed to strengthening immunisation rates so that all Australian children have the best chance to grow up strong and healthy. In government we made important changes to family payments to lift immunisation rates, including linking the family tax benefit end-of-year supplement to immunisation. Ahead of the 2013 election, Labor committed to further tightening immunisation requirements to remove the conscientious objection loophole within the family payment system, and we welcome the government's support for Labor's approach. We know parents lead busy and complicated lives these days, and in many cases missed vaccinations are due to oversight rather than to a specific objection. The establishment of the national immunisation register of school-based vaccinations will assist all parents to keep their children's immunisations up-to-date.

While the bill is not about the No Jab, No Pay legislation, it does provide for data sharing regarding immunisation status that will enable the policy to come into effect. Labor believes that it is a very important measure. It is important that we send a very clear signal that we believe that it is important to vaccinate children.

No more important can that be than when you hear some of the cases around the re-emergence of diseases we thought had long since gone from many of our communities. In particular, this legislation focuses on a lifelong immunisation register. One of the issues that is very significant is that many diseases, whooping cough in particular, are often contracted by adults from children who are not able to be immunised, because the vaccination does not last into adulthood. Having a register of people and knowing their vaccination status is an important way to ensure that people can remain vaccinated.

Earlier this year I was privileged to meet with Toni and David McCaffery, who lost their daughter, Dana, to whooping cough in 2009, and Catherine and Greg Hughes, whose son, Riley, also succumbed to whooping cough in Perth earlier this year. They were two very precious young children, too young to be vaccinated, who died from an easily preventable disease that has no reason to exist in this country or, in fact, even in this century. One of their very clear wishes out of that meeting was that there be a capacity to have an adult immunisation register. This bill, to some extent, goes towards that. As Catherine Hughes declared after the death of Riley, 'We intend on utilising his tragic passing as a means of promoting awareness, honouring our child and hopefully bringing about means of change so that no other family has to undergo the significant anguish our family is currently experiencing at the hands of whooping cough.' I am hoping that long into the future this legislation will enable the capacity for a more comprehensive immunisation register for everybody from birth to older age. That certainly will help with these circumstances.

The changes being made by this legislation are not only about ensuring children are up-to-date with their shots. It is also about ensuring adults have information they need to ensure the protection they receive as children continues long after their schooling ceases. Diseases like tetanus, diphtheria and, of course, whooping cough are not confined to children. Adults who travel or come into contact with others who do not keep their immunisations up-to-date are just as much at risk as those who have refused to be vaccinated.

In baby Riley's home state, the Western Australian health department's notifiable disease report included 1,748 cases of whooping cough in 2014, up from 1,643 the year before. This highlights that immunisations against whooping cough are just as important for adults as they are for children because immunity to the bacterial infection fades after four or five years. But how do many of us keep track if we move house, if we change doctors, if we do not receive regular reminders of the need to keep our vaccinations up-to-date? And it is not just whooping cough, of course. Medical experts recommend that tetanus and diphtheria also be updated every 10 years. Then there are the ever-increasing number of vaccines now recommended for adolescents and adults in Australia, such as influenza, pneumococcal, whooping cough for pregnant mothers, shingles for older Australians and HPV for adolescents and young adults.

Against this background, clinicians and public health workers have long advocated the need for much better information on the vaccination status of any Australians, and this bill, therefore, makes two very big changes. The existing Australian Childhood Immunisation Register was established in 1996. It provides accurate data on the immunisation status of all registered children under the age of seven. From 1 January 2016, the register will expand to collect and record vaccinations given to young adults under the age of 20. Then, from September 2016, it will be expanded further to become the national immunisation register, covering all vaccinations given from birth to death through general practice and community clinics.

This will accommodate the addition of Zostavax shingles vaccine to the National Immunisation Program for persons aged 70. If unexpected disease outbreaks occur, as there have been recently for whooping cough, with tragic consequences for newborns, or in the event of measles returning to Australia, as has occurred in the US, immunisation registers will be able to help us determine whether they are due to low vaccination coverage and enable better targeted responses. The bill also replaces the HPV register with the Australian school vaccination register. Whereas the HPV register, as its name suggests, only captures administration of the HPV vaccine, the School Vaccination Register will record other adolescent vaccinations administered through the school. Programs include chickenpox and the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis whooping cough booster.

Finally, the Health Insurance Act 1973 and the National Health Act 1953, which provide the foundation for how the two national immunisation registers are operated, will be consolidated into a single piece of legislation to provide for the ongoing management and data capture of both registers. Labor will work to ensure these changes are implemented in a way that not only increases immunisation rates across the entire community but also targets vulnerable children and does not lead to these children being excluded from early education and care as a result of their parents' decisions.

We must also ensure that this is not the be-all and end-all of the work we do to educate and inform the public about the benefits of immunisation. Before they were abolished, Medicare Locals were doing good work to increase immunisation rates in local communities, and I urge the government to ensure that this continues through the Primary Health Networks. The leader of the opposition wrote to the former Prime Minister urging reform in this important area and offering bipartisan support to increase immunisation rates across Australia.

As I stated at the outset, Labor warmly welcomes these bills. It is not often in this place that we come together in near-unanimous agreement, and to do something so simple and straightforward and to achieve such immediate impact is a very good idea. But there is strong evidence, even before this legislation takes effect, that it is already working and will lead to great public good: more widespread and comprehensive immunisation for the Australia population. We are delighted at the opportunity to be able to vote in this place for all-too-rare moves to actually improve health outcomes in Australia from a government who has spent the last two years not doing much to improve them. We went to the last election promising to implement measures such as this in legislation such as the No Jab, No Pay legislation. We will welcome the debate on that legislation when it comes, but I certainly commend these bills to the House.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour.