New laws protect children from preventable disease

Published Wednesday, 15 July, 2015 at 06:33 PM

Minister for Health and Minister for Ambulance Services
The Honourable Cameron Dick

Health Minister Cameron Dick today introduced legislation to better protect young and vulnerable Queenslanders from preventable diseases.

The Public Health (Childcare Vaccination) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015 will for the first time protect childcare centres if they decide to exclude children who are not fully immunised against vaccine-preventable diseases.

“Every year, there are tragic cases that highlight the importance of ensuring everyone in your family is fully immunised,” Mr Dick said.

“Conditions like whooping cough, while usually mild for adults, can have tragic consequences for very young children.

“We want to empower childcare centres to talk to parents about their child’s immunisation needs and encourage families to vaccinate.

“These laws will protect childcare centres when they make decisions about enrolment, based on the best interests of children in their care.

“However, childcare centres will still have the discretion to admit children who are not fully immunised, where doing so is reasonable in the individual circumstances. This Bill gives power to those local childcare centres to make those decisions.”

Mr Dick said the Palaszczuk Government had set a target for 95 per cent of all children to be fully immunised against preventable diseases.

“We have made good progress towards this target with around 92 per cent of five year-old Queensland children being fully immunised,” Mr Dick said.

“Vaccination is important for protecting our children and those around us.”

Subject to passage through the Parliament, the government aims to have the new laws operating from 1 January 2016.

Parents can find out more about vaccination by visiting www.qld.gov.au/vaccinate or calling 13 HEALTH (13 43 25 84).

Queensland Health has also developed the VacciDate smart phone app to help parents keep a record of each child’s immunisations and provide reminders when vaccinations and appointments are due. The app is available to download free from Google Play and iTunes.

 

ENDS

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