Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Ellison as the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Ageing. I am aware that there have been very substantial improvements in the last 11 years in the rate of immunisation of Australian children. Could the minister inform the Senate of government initiatives to extend the immunisation register to further enhance the protection of Australian children?

Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is certainly a very important question from Senator Humphries because, quite frankly, immunisation has been established in the last 100 years as one of the most effective public health measures that we have seen. The Howard government has a proud history with its National Immunisation Program. Over our time in government, we have seen the expenditure on immunisation of our children rise from $13 million a year to $207 million a year. It is great to announce today that the Howard government is adding to its list of achievements in relation to the immunisation of Australian children through the immunisation of children for the rotavirus.

Rotavirus gastroenteritis causes severe diarrhoea and accounts for the hospitalisation of around 10,000 Australian children each year. The rotavirus occurs more frequently in young children, with almost half of all cases occurring in babies under 12 months of age and the majority of cases occurring in children under five years of age. In particular, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are seriously affected by this disease.

Two rotavirus vaccines will be available under the National Immunisation Program: Rotarix from GlaxoSmithKline and also RotaTeq from CSL Ltd. The new vaccines will be given orally to babies from two to six months of age, commencing in July 2007. All babies born from 1 May 2007 will be eligible for the free vaccines.

This builds on a great history, as I said earlier, of immunising Australians, Australia’s children in particular. I refer to the pneumococcal vaccine, which the government introduced in January 2005, and also the National Varicella (Chickenpox) Vaccination Program, which is another important one for the protection of children. There is also the replacement of oral polio vaccine with an inactivated polio vaccine.

As well as that, in relation to women’s health, we, importantly, in November last year introduced funding for the HPV vaccination program to commence this year. From April 2007, Gardasil will be funded under the National Immunisation Program on an ongoing basis for 12- to 13-year-old girls, delivered through schools. This government program will also fund a two-year catch-up program for 13- to 18-year-old girls in schools and for 18- to 26-year-old women, which will be delivered through general practice and community based programs.

The record speaks for itself. Vaccination is a proven health preventative measure. It is an outstanding flagship of this government’s health program. We have seen in relation to a disease such as measles—which has been accepted in bygone years as commonplace—the introduction of the seven-point plan, which we announced in 1997. This is a measles control campaign and we have seen the results in relation to that. It has been evaluated that an estimated 17,500 cases of measles were averted in Australia as a result of that campaign. That is an outstanding result for the Australian community. This is just another step in the Howard government’s National Immunisation Program—a very important program for the health of Australian children. I applaud all those concerned with the implementation of this program and look forward to its positive results.