Julia Banks (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No-one ever wants to contemplate the loss of their child. The parents of Riley Hughes and Dana McCaffery had the heart-wrenching experience of losing their children to whooping cough. The children were too young to be immunised and lost their battle against whooping cough at one month old. They were dependent on herd immunity—the community having been vaccinated—and both lived in areas with low immunisation rates.

Immunisation saves lives. It ensures we are protected from preventable diseases. The history of immunisation in Australia dates back to 1932, and we've had a 99 per cent decrease in preventable deaths from those diseases that are covered by Australian's national immunisation program.

The anti-vax movement is creating unfounded fear and myths about immunisation. The so-called anti-vaxers are irresponsible and think that, from their Google research, they know better. They don't. If they knew the facts, if they didn't dabble in ignorance when it comes to protecting their own children and those of others, these beautiful children would still be alive today. The facts are simply put: immunisation saves lives. It protects lives; it's fundamental.

I'm proud that the Turnbull government is launching the Get The Facts campaign to ensure that every Australian child has access to immunisation and is immunised where appropriate. We want to see 100 per cent of Australian children, who can safely be immunised, immunised. Every doctor in the country is of the view that immunisation is a critical thing to do to protect your children and to protect the community from preventable disease.