Have you heard about the No Jab, No Play / Pay laws in Australia?
Unlike the No Pass, No Play rules that we have in Texas, in which kids can’t participate in extracurricular activities unless they pass all of their classes, No Jab, No Play / Pay has to do with getting kids vaccinated.
They were enacted in 2016 due to an increase in outbreaks of vaccine preventable disease, a rise in the spread of anti-vaccine misinformation, and more parents choosing to delay or skip their child’s vaccines. As in the United States, the real problem has been clusters of unvaccinated children in certain regions of the country, as the great majority of people in Australia vaccinate their kids.
How Are Australia’s New Vaccine Laws Working?
As expected, Australia’s new vaccine laws have been a success.
On the national level, No Jab, No Pay has meant that children need to be fully immunized “as a requirement for parents to be eligible to receive the Family Tax Benefit Part A end of year supplement, Child Care Benefit and Child Care Rebate.”
Five-year-olds in Victoria are now better protected against diseases prevented by vaccination than in any other state in Australia, new data shows.
Victoria Leads The Nation When It Comes To Vaccination Rates
But it is only in New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria that children need to be immunized to attend childcare – No Jab, No Play. Additionally, children need to be immunized to attend kindergarten in Queensland and Victoria.
An increase in vaccination rates, by 2 to 5%, has been seen nationwide though.
What about the idea that No Jab, No Play has lead to a drop in preschool enrollments?
KATHARINA GORKA, NON-VACCINATING PARENT: I don’t think it is fair, to be honest. It makes me feel like we are a bit excluded from society, yeah.
Some pre-schools experience drop in enrolments over ‘no jab, no play’ policy
PETER MCCUTCHEON: Did you ever think, “I’ll get my son vaccinated so I get around this pre-school problem”?
KATHARINA GORKA: No, I never thought about that.
PETER MCCUTCHEON: Why not?
KATHARINA GORKA: Because I have a set opinion on vaccinations and that is not going to change.
The law about attending daycare and kindergarten just came into effect in New South Wales, in 2018, but has been in effect since 2016 in Victoria.
We will have to wait a few more months for the 2018 numbers, but preschool enrollment in Victoria was way up after they instituted their strict vaccine requirements!
In Australia during 2017, 339,243 children aged 4 or 5 were enrolled in a preschool program, representing an increase of 2.6% on the previous year’s figure. The largest growth rates were in the Australian Capital Territory (6%) and Victoria (5%).
Australian Bureau of Statistics on Preschool Education, Australia, 2017
Maybe folks just don’t want to go to care centers that had been pandering to anti-vaccine parents…
Still, some vaccine advocates don’t think that No Jab, No Play / Pay laws are a good idea for Australia. Many also don’t think that it is a good idea that some Australian doctors are starting to refuse to see unvaccinated children, a practice that seems to have been exported from the United States.
Others don’t see alternatives, as they feel that they have been trying for a long time to educate parents that vaccines are safe and necessary, and this is one of the few ways that can reliably improve vaccination rates.
More on Australia’s New Vaccine Laws
- No Jab No Play, No Jab No Pay
- Victoria Leads The Nation When It Comes To Vaccination Rates
- Some pre-schools experience drop in enrolments over ‘no jab, no play’ policy
- Australian Bureau of Statistics on Preschool Education, Australia, 2017
- Supporting No Jab No Pay – improving awareness and uptake of immunisation
- No Jab, No Pay and vaccine refusal in Australia: the jury is out
- Unvaccinated children being refused healthcare, Australian survey shows
- ‘No Jab, No Play’: How Australia Is Handling the Vaccination Debate
- No Jab No Pay Gets Tougher
- As Byron Bay Council defends appearance of professional antivaxer, unimmunised child airlifted to Brisbane with tetanus
- No Jab No Pay No Way protests – anti-vaccine to their very core
- GP who helped parents avoid ‘no jab, no play’ rules stops practising during investigation
- Revealed: Secret underground network of ‘anti-vaxxer doctors helping HUNDREDS of families dodge compulsory immunisations’
- Perth anti-vaccination billboard attracts vandal with a message of their own
- MMR Vaccine decision aid
- Sharing Knowledge About Immunisation (SKAI)
- Measuring vaccine coverage in Australia
- Current AusVaxSafety surveillance data
- Australian Immunisation Handbook
- Australia blocked anti-vaccine radicals from re-entering the country
- Australia ends insurance subsidies for naturopathy, homeopathy, and more
- Riley Hughes: Parents of newborn who died from whooping cough release video of his final moments
- Tetanus case confirmed in South Australian toddler
- No Vax? No Visit.
- Losing in the Lucky Country
- reasonable hank
- Diluted Thinking
- Public Warning About the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN)