No Jab No Pay is an Australian policy initiative which withholds three state payments – Child Care Benefit, the Child Care Rebate and a portion of the fortnightly Family Tax Benefit part A per child – for parents of children under 20 years of age who are not fully immunised or on a recognised catch-up schedule. [1] No Jab No Play is a related policy that disallows unvaccinated children from attending preschool and childcare centres, and imposes fines on childcare centres that admit unvaccinated children. [2] [3] The system allows exemptions for children who cannot be safely vaccinated for medical reasons.
The policies grew out of a grassroots campaign championed by News Limited, [4] [5] in 2013. [6] It was boosted by parent activists representing children who had died of preventable disease, notably the families of Riley Hughes and Dana McCaffery, [4] infants who died of pertussis, leading to a backlash of harassment and trolling from anti-vaccination activists. [7] [8] Far-right politician Pauline Hanson also opposed the policy, though she later gave in to political pressure and backed the policy. [9] and clarified that she supports vaccination. [10] The campaign was a response to a rise in "conscientious objections", which had reached record levels [11] particularly in the Sunshine Coast area of Queensland, [12] where early attempts to pass legislation were knocked back in 2014. [13] Efforts to circumvent the legislation included the founding of more fake religions, of which the best known, the "Church of Conscious Living", was promoted by anti-vaccine group the Australian Vaccination Network [14] [15] (since renamed to Australian Vaccination-risks Network after legal action over its deceptive name), [16] and by anti-vaccination activist Stephanie Messenger. [17]
No Jab No Pay was legislated in 2015, [18] came into effect January 1, 2016, and was expanded in July 2018. [19] [20] By July 2016, 148,000 children who had not previously been fully immunised, were meeting the new requirements. [21]
No Jab No Play was introduced at the state level, in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria in 2017, [22] leading to an immediate though small rise in immunisation rates, [23] with Western Australia, which has some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, following in December 2018. [24]
Public health researchers have had mixed evaluations of No Jab, No Pay and No Jab, No Play. Removing non-medical exemptions from vaccine requirements have been questioned on ethical grounds, the potential for coercive policies to lead to an increase in anti-vaccination sentiment, and the inequity of policy based on welfare conditionality. [25] [26] [27] A study on the impact of removing conscientious objection from financial payments and childcare enrolments found that the policies led to a significant increase in childhood vaccination above the pre-intervention trend. The effect of the policies were larger in areas with lower socio-economic status, higher rates of government benefits, and higher pre-intervention coverage rates. [28] A study of adolescent catch-up vaccination found that No Jab No Pay resulted in a large rise in catch up vaccination. [29] A 2022 study examined the effect of No Jab No Play policies on vaccine adherence with a study design that isolated the effect of No Jab No Play policies distinct from federal mandates found that childcare mandate policies had a small positive impact on uptake. [30]
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No Jab No Pay is an Australian policy initiative which withholds three state payments – Child Care Benefit, the Child Care Rebate and a portion of the fortnightly Family Tax Benefit part A per child – for parents of children under 20 years of age who are not fully immunised or on a recognised catch-up schedule. [1] No Jab No Play is a related policy that disallows unvaccinated children from attending preschool and childcare centres, and imposes fines on childcare centres that admit unvaccinated children. [2] [3] The system allows exemptions for children who cannot be safely vaccinated for medical reasons.
The policies grew out of a grassroots campaign championed by News Limited, [4] [5] in 2013. [6] It was boosted by parent activists representing children who had died of preventable disease, notably the families of Riley Hughes and Dana McCaffery, [4] infants who died of pertussis, leading to a backlash of harassment and trolling from anti-vaccination activists. [7] [8] Far-right politician Pauline Hanson also opposed the policy, though she later gave in to political pressure and backed the policy. [9] and clarified that she supports vaccination. [10] The campaign was a response to a rise in "conscientious objections", which had reached record levels [11] particularly in the Sunshine Coast area of Queensland, [12] where early attempts to pass legislation were knocked back in 2014. [13] Efforts to circumvent the legislation included the founding of more fake religions, of which the best known, the "Church of Conscious Living", was promoted by anti-vaccine group the Australian Vaccination Network [14] [15] (since renamed to Australian Vaccination-risks Network after legal action over its deceptive name), [16] and by anti-vaccination activist Stephanie Messenger. [17]
No Jab No Pay was legislated in 2015, [18] came into effect January 1, 2016, and was expanded in July 2018. [19] [20] By July 2016, 148,000 children who had not previously been fully immunised, were meeting the new requirements. [21]
No Jab No Play was introduced at the state level, in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria in 2017, [22] leading to an immediate though small rise in immunisation rates, [23] with Western Australia, which has some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, following in December 2018. [24]
Public health researchers have had mixed evaluations of No Jab, No Pay and No Jab, No Play. Removing non-medical exemptions from vaccine requirements have been questioned on ethical grounds, the potential for coercive policies to lead to an increase in anti-vaccination sentiment, and the inequity of policy based on welfare conditionality. [25] [26] [27] A study on the impact of removing conscientious objection from financial payments and childcare enrolments found that the policies led to a significant increase in childhood vaccination above the pre-intervention trend. The effect of the policies were larger in areas with lower socio-economic status, higher rates of government benefits, and higher pre-intervention coverage rates. [28] A study of adolescent catch-up vaccination found that No Jab No Pay resulted in a large rise in catch up vaccination. [29] A 2022 study examined the effect of No Jab No Play policies on vaccine adherence with a study design that isolated the effect of No Jab No Play policies distinct from federal mandates found that childcare mandate policies had a small positive impact on uptake. [30]
{{
cite news}}
: |last=
has generic name (
help)
{{
cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)