Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to give wholehearted support to the federal government's Australian Immunisation Register and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2017. While the bill only makes minor technical changes to the No Jab, No Play arrangements, it is important to note the significance of ensuring this legislation remains effective and up to date to help safeguard the health of everyday Australians and sustain the nation's high level of immunity to many of the planet's worst infectious diseases.

While we fully support the continuing vaccination of Australian children, under this bill we understand and acknowledge the number of Australians with medical conditions who require exemptions to current arrangements. As the legislation currently stands, only GPs can grant these exemptions, which unduly affects and inconveniences this small group of people. The amendments to the bill will now allow four other medical specialists to grant these exemptions—paediatricians, public health physicians, infectious disease physicians and clinical immunologists. This not only continues to safeguard these regulations within the hands of those with the appropriate expertise but it makes common sense. In addition, the federal government will clarify the acceptance of evidence of vaccination, which can only occur through recognised vaccination providers and not through parents or the public, by amending the health and social services act to make sure it's explicit in the legislation and, therefore, very clear to the public.

This bill is a welcome addition to the immunisation program of Australia and a ringing endorsement of the benefits and positive results of immunisation in Australia and, indeed, around the world. The scientific evidence supporting the use of vaccines is overwhelming, yet this issue still refuses to be put to bed. The heat refuses to go out of it, and, if anything, at times, the temperature has increased exponentially, fuelled by many irresponsible commentators and, more locally in this country, by reckless and ridiculous commentary from One Nation, which has been spearheaded by Senator Hanson. In early March of this year, on the campaign trail for the Western Australian state election, Senator Hanson spoke on ABC's Insiders to question the safety of vaccinations generally, which many social commentators attributed to a renewed push on the issue by those against vaccinations—the antivaxxers, if you will. Those antivaxxers put the health of children in the wider community at risk through their irresponsible and unjustifiable campaigns that seek to discourage immunisation of children.

Senator Hanson has backed down from those comments, suggesting parents use a non-existent test for vaccine allergies—it's not very helpful to recommend a test that does not exist. But she has not apologised for the dangerous comments she made linking vaccines to cancer and autism. This is not only desperately irresponsible but a slap in the face of the medical profession as well as victims of both diseases and science itself.

What's even worse is the fact that the Prime Minister refused to directly condemn these comments for fear of upsetting the Liberal Party's new preference deal partner. Well, we all saw how that deal with One Nation went in the WA election. It must be remembered that these comments the Prime Minister refused to repudiate are comments that medical experts have described as dangerous and ignorant. These comments and attitudes are lifted directly from the political playbook of the alt-right and conspiracy theorists that seek, with determination and ignorance, to denigrate scientific research and denigrate the benefits that flow from it.

In this digital age, misinformation on immunisation and vaccines is rife. It's rife across the internet and easily accessible to those who are vulnerable to misleading and persuasive arguments. This boils down to a lack of solid, consistent education on the topic to combat this rise in negative attitudes. Australia must start providing a clear, thorough and well thought out message that Australia's strong immunisation program is critical to ensuring that the chances of contracting a life-threatening disease remain low. I welcome the government's commitment to a national strategy in this regard.

I and the rest of the Labor Party call on the Turnbull government to properly fund and resource the national education campaign for vaccines and immunisation, and to raise awareness of the critical importance they have to the health and wellbeing of everyday Australians. I believe the best way to refute these recent negative and misleading claims and commentary is through this national education program, which will provide irrefutable and overwhelming medical evidence and help provide a strong case to convince those Australian parents who perhaps think twice before vaccinating their child. However, I won't be holding my breath to see if any education program or, indeed, any facts will convince Senator Hanson to revoke her views.

The last thing any of us would want is a significant decline in the vaccination rate in Australia or, indeed, anything that would undermine confidence in the Immunise Australia Program. The President of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Michael Gannon, said recently:

… about 8 per cent of the population are so-called vaccine hesitant, and they're looking for any information that might lead them away from what is, with the exception of clean water, probably the most significant health measure we've got.

It is absolutely essential that we have accurate information …

I agree with this, the Labor Party agrees with this and the overwhelming majority of the parliament agrees with this. Oddly enough, that's similar to the views on marriage equality. Why then does the Prime Minister refuse to outright condemn Senator Hanson and her ignorance of the issue? A slap on the wrist is hardly an adequate response.

In 2015-16, the Australian rate of immunisation averaged around 93 per cent among five year olds. My own electorate of Brand in Western Australia has similar rates, with Kwinana and Rockingham at 93.3 per cent and 92.5 per cent respectively. This is up from a 90 per cent immunisation rate of children in 2012 but still short of the desired target of 95 per cent. Those that challenge that target are ignoring the basic scientific data which requires effective immunity—herd immunity, if you like—to be maintained with consistently high levels of vaccination rates amongst population centres. It's very pleasing to me that families in my electorate are making the very positive step for the health care of their children by ensuring they are vaccinated against diseases that can kill, that can harm a child's development and that are entirely preventable. I urge all parents in my community of Brand, Rockingham and Kwinana to follow the lead of the caring community around you, take part in the excellent and critically important immunisation program and have your children vaccinated.

Right now, in Perth, we are sadly witnessing an entirely preventable measles scare. I was very sad to read that there is a young student from a Perth school who travelled to Italy—she was an unvaccinated student—and has brought back, to her school in Bibra Lake, measles. She has measles herself and, before she was diagnosed, she was in the school population spreading this disease. It is sad enough that a modern, First World country in Europe—Italy—is itself in the grip of a measles epidemic but even sadder still that an unvaccinated child from Australia should go on holiday and bring back measles to her school, where it turns out that only half of its 400 students might be vaccinated. I think it's very concerning that the Perth school at the centre of this measles scare has not taken up the offer of a special immunisation clinic to ensure that all of its students are vaccinated immediately. This was an offer put to them by the WA health department. I hope the school reconsiders. If it doesn't, I sincerely hope the parents of children in that school act quickly to ensure their children do not suffer from measles in the future. In addition to this, the school has a very wide metropolitan catchment area, so it is difficult to know what suburbs the children are from. So this measles scare could spread through the metropolitan area of Perth rather quickly if not looked at immediately.

We know that the vast majority of parents are only interested in doing what is best for their children. Having a proper, clear and well-resourced national education campaign, which I spoke of earlier, will greatly counteract the slow tide of misinformation that is seeping into the public discourse and perhaps is what leads to schools such as this one only having nearly half of their students immunised. This type of campaign has the full backing of many of Australia's peak medical and scientific bodies, such as the AMA, the Australian Academy of Science, the Public Health Association of Australia and all of Australia's medical colleges. The government has been slow to act on this idea, but we are grateful that they have finally jumped on board. However, this education program still requires further resources and attention. There should be no debate on the issue of immunisation, only more education and proactive policies to ensure higher vaccination rates. The undoubted global health benefits of immunisation deserve no less.

While I have the opportunity, I have to reflect on the fact that introducing improved education programs in vaccination is not the only thing this government has been slow to act on. Nearly four years ago the coalition was elected to government on a platform consisting of a number of policies. I won't go through them all, but one is particularly relevant. The former Prime Minister in May 2014 as opposition leader, at the moment the member for Warringah, committed:

If childcare centres want to implement 'no jab, no play' then they should be free to do so, and we will work with the states and territories to make it happen.

Nearly four years later, what has happened? Virtually nothing. While we welcome the renewed interest in and commitment to important health policy, we can add this to the tally of broken promises and failed objectives, notwithstanding the government's sudden compulsion to keep another election promise—a non-compulsory, nonbinding postal plebiscite on marriage equality.

Members opposite, when reflecting on broken promises and promises they have made in elections, could do worse than listen to or watch Emma Alberici's interview with the Minister for Finance, Senator Cormann, earlier this week. She points out the government's sudden obsession with keeping its election promises. To paraphrase her, she says: 'You didn't keep the promise when it came to health and education. No new taxes is what you said before the 2013 election, and you introduced a three per cent budget repair tax. You, the government, promised no cuts to the ABC and then took $44 million away from the ABC. The member for Warringah promised you would not shut any Medicare Locals. All of them are now gone. The foreign minister, Julie Bishop, promised no cuts to foreign aid and that it would grow in line with inflation. Instead it was frozen, and that represents a $7.6 billion real cut. Then there was the member for Warringah's signature policy on paid parental leave, which has also been abandoned.' The clincher was that the interviewer asked, and it is what most Australians ask, 'Why is the promise on marriage equality and the need for a plebiscite of whatever order so important to keep?' It's no wonder the Australian people are understandably confused about exactly what this government is on about with its mixed up and whacky priorities that are of no help to Australia and its people.

Returning to the No Jab, No Play policy, we will continue to give the government's commitment to this issue today the attention it deserves and we will continue to watch closely and hold them to account as this progresses.

I want, before I conclude, to reflect on a very sad story, and many of you will have heard of it. In Western Australia there's a young family who became unexpected champions of the vaccination cause of promoting immunisation. Catherine and Greg Hughes experienced the preventable tragedy of losing their son, Riley, to whooping cough. It was utterly preventable but sequences of events led to the tragedy of losing their son. I am sure that on the day their son was born they could never have imagined firstly that 32 days later he would have died from a preventable disease which the community should be immunised against but that also they would become champions of the cause of immunisation amongst pregnant women and young children across Australia. So they have set up the Immunisation Foundation of Australia, and if there are parents around Western Australia, and the country for that matter, who feel confused about immunisation I really do encourage them to look to this family, Catherine and Greg Hughes, and their cause. Their Light for Riley website can direct them to some very trustworthy information on immunisation. What happened to young Riley should not have had to happen. He was too young to be vaccinated; he came in contact at some point in his life with someone who was not vaccinated against whooping cough and that ended in tragic circumstances. His parents have since had another young daughter, and they continue to fight for what we all should fight for, to ensure that the immunisation rates in Australia, of Australian children and adults, only continue to climb.

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