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

The next steps in further boosting vaccination rates are to tackle enrolment policies at preschool and in childcare centres. Currently, there is a patchwork of enrolment policies across Australia, with some states and territories allowing enrolment without vaccination while other states and territories do require vaccination. In New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland there are various legislative measures in place to require vaccination, whilst children do not need to be immunised to enrol at centres in the ACT and in my home state of South Australia or in Western Australia, Tasmania or the Northern Territory. We believe there should be a nationally consistent approach. In the interests of transparency, we also believe that vaccination rates at each childcare centre should be made publicly available. Immunisation is a community obligation as well as a parental obligation. We want to make sure that children are vaccinated and we will work with states and territories to ensure enrolment policies reflect that and further drive up vaccination rates.