Victoria cracks down on anti-vaxxers with tough new legislation

STRICTER legislation surrounding Victoria’s No Jab No Play laws will see unvaccinated children unable to be enrolled in kindergartens and childcare centres.

TOUGHER laws will see parents in Victoria who refuse to vaccinate their children unable to enrol them in schools and childcare centres.

Under a tightening of the states No Jab No Play laws if a parent wants to enrol their unvaccinated child in primary school or daycare they must provide proof of a serious medical condition that prevents vaccination.

Before the legislation crackdown childcare services and kindergartens had to obtain documents stating that the child is either fully immunised for their age, on a catch-up vaccination program or suffering from a medical condition that means they can’t be immunised, before they could be enrolled.

Stricter legislation surrounding No Jab No Play laws closes loopholes that previously allowed unvaccinated children to be enrolled in schools.

Anti-vaxxers were able to get around these requirements by finding doctors who were willing to provide them with a letter or documents but under the new legislation, which is set to be introduced into parliament this week, these loopholes will be closed.

Letters from GPs or other immunisation providers will no longer be accepted as proof of immunisation and parents must instead provide an official statement from the Australian Immunisation Register.

As part of these changes childcare centres will also undergo regular audits to ensure all children enrolled are up to date with their immunisation shots, with parents risking having their children’s enrolment cancelled if they are found to be unvaccinated.

The stricter legislation comes after Melbourne GP John Piesse had his medical license suspended after it was revealed that he was helping anti-vaxxers get around the immunisation laws.

He was flagged to the Department of Health after he applied to be exempt from having to perform compulsory immunisations, claiming the vaccinations would be damaging to his patient’s health.

Dr John Piesse was suspended from practising medicine after it was discovered that he was attempting to help patients avoid immunisations. Picture: Nicole Gamston

Originally published as Victoria cracks down on anti-vaxxers with tough new legislation