Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

In 2014 the number of measles cases in Australia hit a 16-year high, with 340 cases across the nation. Even in 2015 unnecessary suffering is being endured by children and their parents due to an avoidable disease. It is resurgent because enclaves of unvaccinated children have allowed the disease to gain a foothold. So it is timely that we in this place seek to implement legislation that will help ensure more Australian children are vaccinated. As a parent with a young baby I strongly believe that it is critical we grant our children freedom from avoidable diseases.

There is certainly very strong evidence for the need to vaccinate our children. If enough members in a community are vaccinated we achieve herd immunity, meaning that a disease can effectively be eradicated. This was the case with polio. The introduction of the polio vaccine saw the number of local polio cases in Australia fall from 39.1 per 100,000 population in 1938 to zero in 1978. The problem is that when parents do not have their children vaccinated they not only put their own children at risk but also risk the health of the community of children, allowing the disease to gain a foothold. It is not only children who are at risk but also vulnerable people in our community.

Many of us have forgotten how dangerous preventable diseases, such as measles and polio, are because they have been controlled so well in Australia through comprehensive vaccination programs. The reality is that they are deadly diseases. According to the World Health Organisation, in 2013, there were 145,700 deaths from measles around the world. That is approximately 400 deaths a day. The number of reported polio cases worldwide, on the other hand, has dropped from 350,000 in 1988, to 416 in 2013. This massive reduction was made possible through a global effort to immunise children. We must not underestimate the benefits that vaccination brings. However, with a highly infectious disease, such as measles, the immunisation rate required to interrupt disease transmission is above 95 per cent—a mark we have not yet met.

Immunisation rates in some parts of my electorate, Higgins, are concerningly low. According to 2012-13 data from the National Health Performance Authority, in Stonnington-West, which includes the suburbs of Prahran, Windsor, Armadale, South Yarra and Toorak, only 85.7 per cent of five-year-olds were fully vaccinated. This is compared to a national average of 91.86 per cent, at the time.

The Australian Immunisation Register Bill 2015 seeks to implement a comprehensive framework for our national immunisation registers and to expand the scope of our two existing immunisation registers, the Australian Childhood Immunisation register and the National Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Program Register. The changes made in this bill will help to increase national immunisation rates, along with the government's No Jab, No Pay budget measure. This latter measure is important because we need to provide parents with the incentive to ensure that their choices in not vaccinating their children do not impinge on the rights of other children to be free of the disease. The measures proposed in this bill work practically, in two ways, to encourage and track immunisation.

Firstly, the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register will be expanded to become the Australian Immunisation Register. This new register will, ultimately, capture all immunisation information, from birth to death, for vaccines detailed under the national immunisation program. This expansion will happen in two stages. The first, to start from 1 January 2016, will expand the register, which currently only tracks immunisation data for those under seven years of age, to collect vaccination records for all individuals under 20 years of age. This change will go hand in hand with the No Jab, No Pay budget measure, as it will allow the government to ascertain which families are entitled to family assistance and childcare payments on account of their children having been vaccinated.

The second stage, set to occur from September 2016, will expand the register to collect vaccine information for Australians of all ages. This will accommodate the introduction of the shingles vaccine into the national immunisation program for 70-year-olds. This is a highly practical and humane measure. The second immunisation register, currently in place—the National Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Program Register—will be expanded, under this legislation, to become the Australian Schools Vaccination Register from the beginning of 2017. This is significant, as there are a number of vaccines administered in schools that are not adequately recorded and, as a result, immunisation rates for adolescents in Australia are not well known. This includes information about vaccines for chickenpox, tetanus and diphtheria and the whooping cough booster. All of these can be extremely serious diseases and we should ensure that our adolescents are protected.

The expansion of our two existing immunisation registers will give vaccine providers the data they need on areas where immunisation rates are low, and it will allow them to send out the necessary reminder letters in an effort to improve vaccination rates. This bill also lays down important groundwork for a single immunisation register that may exist, in Australia, in the future.

In conclusion, we must ensure the ongoing protection of our children from easily preventable diseases by improving immunisation rates. The first step in doing so is to gather data on the current levels of vaccination. With this data we can target areas of the community where immunity is low to better protect our entire citizenry. This bill is therefore a major step in reducing the incidence of vaccine-preventable diseases and is good news for all Australian children. I commend the bill to the House.

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