The
Australian government has beefed up its already relatively strong vaccination
laws in a bid to push inoculation rates up to record highs around the country.
According to a statement by
MP Dan Tehan, the Minister for Social Services, as of July 1, parents who don’t
vaccinate their children will lose part of their biweekly support payments.
Those
receiving Family
Tax Benefit Part A payments – available to families earning around
$59,100 USD – will lose $21 USD every two weeks for each child not up to date
with their required vaccinations.
“Immunization
is the safest way to protect children from vaccine-preventable diseases,” Tehan
explained. “Parents who don’t immunize their children are putting their own
kids at risk as well as the children of other people.”
Vaccination
policies vary all around the world, both across and within nations. In the US,
for example, it’s mandatory for
children to receive a suite of vaccinations or else they won’t be allowed to go
to school.
There
are exemptions for
those with legitimate medical issues, which is why it’s important for everyone
else to get vaccinated. Thanks to the principle of herd
immunity, if everyone else is vaccinated, they remain insulated from the
disease in question. There are, sadly, exemptions for personal, religious, and
philosophical reasons, which as you might imagine are applied for – and granted
– at a disgraceful
rate.
Anti-vaxxers
have infested the Southern Hemisphere too, so some Australian parents who
are fundamentally
opposed to the idea of vaccines will likely take the financial hit.
Hopefully, though, this pushes vaccination rates up: The desert nation has had
some success with its increasingly strict vaccination laws in the past.
Back
in 2015, the government terminated religious exemptions for vaccinations.
Various Australian states also began to abide by a “No
Jab, No Play” policy, which bars unvaccinated children from attending
educational centers and daycare. They also have banned exemptions for those
who object to
vaccinations on a moral or philosophical level.