Australia Is Taking A Stand Against Parents Who Won’t Vaccinate Their Kids: “No Jab, No Pay” Means No More Welfare Cash

The Australian government is set to implement a radical new policy early this year to address the issue of parents who are refusing to have their children receive the necessary vaccination shots. The solution is going by the unofficial title of “No Jab, No Pay” and will see the government withholding benefits from anti-vaccination parents.

In a move that many are stating the United States may soon need to start following, the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott had announced back in April that the government would be withholding “childcare rebates” and other such government benefits from any family that refuses to get their child vaccinated and help stop the spread of preventable illnesses. The “No Jab, No Pay” policy may cost parents upwards of $15,000 each year per child in benefit payments lost.

Under the current Australian laws, families who have children that are not immunized are still entitled to receive their annual childcare rebate and all other benefits as long as they can prove that they have a personal, philosophical, or religious objection to getting their child vaccinated. However, Prime Minister Abbott says those rules are about to be significantly tightened in order to only allow a very small amount of religious and medical reasons to be exceptions for not getting a child vaccinated.

“This is essentially a ‘no jab, no pay’ policy from this Government. It’s a very important public health announcement, it’s a very important measure to keep our children and our families as safe as possible.”

According to reports from the Scary Mommy site, this will not be the first move that the Australian government has made against anti-vaccine parents. Back in 2014, they blocked the Australian Vaccination-skeptics Network from qualifying as a charity and being able to receive donations because they were promoting misinformation about the effects of the vaccines. Unfortunately, a similar anti-vaccine belief is prevalent in the United States despite the fact that vaccines have continuously been proven to be safe and very necessary in order to help prevent potentially devastating childhood illnesses like measles, rubella, and whooping cough.

Australia’s Opposition Leader, Bill Shorten, agreed with the decision of the Prime Minister and believes it to be a sensible step.

“We believe fundamentally in the science of vaccinations and we fundamentally believe that policy should be made by the best evidence and the best science. And we would say to the Liberal Government, we’re pleased that you’re agreeing with our position and yes we will cooperate to make sure that the safety of our children is what is paramount in public policy.”

The rate of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases in Australia is by far lower than that of North America’s. In 2014, there were 2,614 outbreaks in Australia versus the rate in North America of 58,051 outbreaks for that same year. In 2015, the United States saw the occurrence of its first measles-related death in over 12 years. ABC Australia stated that vaccination rates in Australia are over 90 percent for children one to five years of age, but the government has reported more than 39,000 children under the age of seven had not vaccinated because of objections from their parents. The figures reflect an alarming increase of over 24,000 children over the past decade who have not been vaccinated.

Social Services Minister Scott Morrison advised that Australian parents seeking a religious exception to the “No Jab, No Pay” policy would have to be registered with their church or religious organization. He also said that, thus far, no mainstream religions have made any objections to the planned policy to boost vaccinations.

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