Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
Australian parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated could be stripped of upwards of $11,000 worth of federal child care payments and tax benefits starting next year, Prime Minister Tony Abbot and Social Services Minister Scott Morrison announced on Sunday.
Currently, parents are allowed to opt out of vaccinations for medical or religious reasons, or by claiming that they are “conscientious objectors” to the policy. However, Australian official will be removing that last exemption from child care benefit laws starting in January 2016.
Reinforcing the importance of immunizations
In a joint statement, Abbot and Morrison said that parents who choose vaccinate their children “should have confidence that they can take their children to child care without the fear that their children will be at risk of contracting a serious or potentially life-threatening illness” from kids whose parents are conscientious objectors to immunization laws.
To that end, the government officials have decided to end the conscientious objector exemption on children’s vaccination for access to taxpayer-funded child care benefits. In addition, they are expanding immunization requirements for the Family Tax Benefit Part A end-of-year benefits to include children of all ages (currently, only one-, two- and five-year-olds are checked).
Existing medical or religious exemptions will continue, though the latter will require that parents be affiliated with a religious group that has filed a formal objection that has been approved by the government, Abbot and Morrison explained. They added that the new policy will “reinforce the importance of immunization and protecting public health, especially for children.”
New regulations being met by some opposition
According to CNN.com, under the new so-called “no jab, no pay” policy, thousands of families are at risk of losing their welfare benefits as the government estimated that more than 39,000 youngsters under the age of seven have not received immunizations due to the objections of their parents. That number has nearly doubled in the last decade, federal official claim.
In the US and other Western countries, anti-vaccination campaigns have been increasing in the past few years due to fears that they could cause autism. That theory has been widely discredited by scientists, the website added, but fears persist, with some experts blaming those concerns for the recent measles outbreak that has spread throughout California and other states.
The government said that the “vast majority” of these families (approximately 97 percent) meet vaccination requirements at relevant age points, but that it was “extremely concerned” about the potential health risks posed to the community by those who are not vaccinated. In response to the announcement, over 7,000 people have signed a petition opposing the changes, CNN said.
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