Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education and Training, Senator Birmingham. Will the minister please update the Senate on how the Turnbull government's No Jab, No Pay immunisation policy has increased the number of children being immunised?

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Hume for a very appropriate, important and relevant policy question. Since 1 January 2016, under our No Jab, No Pay policy, only parents of children who are fully vaccinated or on a recognised catch-up schedule can receive the childcare benefit or the childcare rebate. Childcare payments are conditional upon all children meeting their immunisation requirements. We have made it the case that conscientious objection is no longer a valid exemption category. The only exemption now available in these circumstances is, quite rightly, a medical exemption. The Turnbull government's No Jab, No Pay policy has, I am pleased to inform the Senate, been a massive success. Thanks to No Jab, No Pay an additional 225,000 Australian children have been immunised. I invite the chamber to seriously reflect upon that achievement: thanks to this policy initiative, an additional 225,000 Australian children have been vaccinated, providing much safer conditions for those children and for many children around them.

Immunisation is an important health measure for children and their families because it is the safest and most effective way of providing protection against harmful and often deadly diseases. Parents deserve to know their children will be safe when they drop them off at child care. Parents of children too young to be immunised deserve to know that every effort is being made to make safe the community in which their children live. Parents of children who cannot be immunised for medical reasons deserve to know that every effort has been made to ensure the community in which their children live is safe. Thanks to our No Jab, No Pay policy the communities for these children are safer and lives will be saved.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hume, a supplementary question.

Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for his answer. It is very encouraging. Will the minister also advise the Senate what more can be done to boost immunisation rates in Australia and protect children?

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Earlier this year the Prime Minister wrote to all state premiers and chief ministers to examine the ways they can further strengthen immunisation policies around early learning enrolments and build upon the work of the Turnbull government's No Jab, No Pay policy. While our policy puts in place clear provisions in relation to the receipt of subsidies, there is more that state and territory governments can do in relation to enrolment practices in early education facilities around the country. Currently there is a patchwork of enrolment policies. But working through the health and education councils of COAG we are developing nationally consistent approaches to increase immunisation rates even further. We are pleased to see that some state and territory governments are already pre-emptively moving in this space to strengthen their policies, following the lead of the Turnbull government, acting upon the initiative of Prime Minister Turnbull and doing their bit to create a safer environment for our children.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hume, a final supplementary question.

Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the minister please update the Senate on what the Turnbull government is doing to ensure that parents are aware of the benefits of immunising their children?

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thankfully, immunisation rates in Australia are high and the vast majority of Australian parents and families do the right thing. Around 93 per cent of five-year-old children are fully vaccinated. But there remain pockets of our communities where vaccination rates are too low to meet the third immunity requirements to really have full confidence in safety. It is these areas of low coverage which pose risks to the community, especially to those people and especially those young children who may not be able to be vaccinated such as newborns or those with medical reasons.

Last weekend the Turnbull government launched the new Get the Facts about Immunisation campaign to encourage Australian parents and carers to get their kids vaccinated and to ensure that the falsehoods and the mistruths spread by antivaxxers are fully countered with an authoritative government message that makes clear the benefits of vaccination not just to your own child but to children who they may be playing with and living alongside.