Conscientious objection to vaccination is
not and will never be a genuine reason for
failing to vaccinate a child.
Conscientious objection selfishly puts the
health of a parent's child at risk, but also
risks the health of every child and adult
who cannot be vaccinated for genuine medical
reasons.
As of December 2015, a total of 8115 children
in NSW were recorded as having a conscientious
objection against vaccination.
Thankfully it is on a downward trend but that's
still 8115 too many.
That's young lives that are at the risk of crackpot
conspiracies peddled by those who should know
better.
Conspiracies including claims that vaccinations
are agents of government mind-control, or
a pro-capitalist plot cooked up by big pharma.
The purported link between combined vaccinations
and autism can be traced back to 1998 by a
former doctor Andrew Wakefield, who claimed
there was a link between the two.
The Texan born doctor has since been struck
off the medical register and his research
papers retracted.
Speaker, Labor proposed the changes we see
in the Bill today following reports of families
seeking to establish anti-vaxxer child-care
centres, exploiting loopholes in the existing
legislation designed to protect children.
This Bill adopts sensible and principled measures
that will further the protections offered
by immunisation and ensures that no child
is exposed to the risk and suffering of deadly
infections from diseases that are easily prevented.
This Bill also exposes the truth about conscientious
objection - there is no such thing as conscientious
objection to vaccination; just anti-vaxxers.
