South Australian Public Health (Immunisation and Early Childhood Services) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse) (15:47): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The South Australian Public Health Act 2011 is an act to promote and to provide for the protection of the health of the public and reduce the incidence of preventable illnesses, injury and disability. Immunisation is a key method of reducing the incidence of illness through the prevention and reduction in morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases. According to the World Health Organisation:

Immunisation is one of the most powerful and cost-effective of all health interventions.

Yet, despite the proven health and safety outcomes arising from the effectiveness of vaccination in reducing illnesses and deaths from once common childhood diseases such as polio, diphtheria and measles, some parents choose not to vaccinate their children. The 2017 Australian Child Health Poll survey of almost 2,000 parents found that 5 per cent of those children were not up to date with their vaccinations and one in six of that group had been refused enrolment in an early learning service as a result.

The South Australian government believes that this state should have the best childhood immunisation rates in the country and the no jab no play bill proposes tough new laws to impose immunisation among children, meaning that children must be appropriately immunised in order to attend early childhood care services. The mandatory immunisations would align with those realisations as listed on the National Immunisation Program childhood schedule and include hepatitis B, whooping cough, polio, measles, mumps and rubella. The no jab no play bill aims to improve South Australia's overall immunisation coverage while concurrently reducing pockets of underimmunisation.

The bill seeks to prevent and reduce morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases through an improved public health response and enhanced community immunity to cases of vaccine-preventable diseases occurring in early childhood services. The no jab no play bill seeks to protect all children from those infectious diseases that can be prevented by vaccinations to foster a safe and healthy environment for early childhood learning.

Early childhood care services are those which provide care of young children under the age of six years for fee or reward, such as child care, also called centre-based care, long day care and early learning centres, family day care, preschool and kindergarten, rural care program, mobile childcare services and occasional care.

According to the Australian Immunisation Register, the South Australian annualised immunisation coverage is approximately 90 per cent in the various measured groups. In addition, immunisation coverage differs by local government area, with areas of lower coverage occurring in both metropolitan and regional areas. Given the benefits of immunisation, the national aspirational immunisation coverage target has been set at 95 per cent. Most other states have the ability to exclude unimmunised children from an early childhood service when an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease is occurring. Additionally, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland have passed state-based legislation that aligns childhood immunisation with child care enrolment.

The no jab no play bill proposes that in order to attend early childhood services, a child must be age appropriately immunised, on an immunisation catch-up program or meet the exemption requirements; that parents/guardians would be required to provide early childhood services with evidence that their child meets the immunisation requirements; and that a child with a vaccine-preventable disease or who is at risk of getting a vaccine-preventable disease may be excluded from the early childhood service when an outbreak of that disease is occurring at the service.

For consistency, exemption requirements will align with the commonwealth government's no jab no play legislation. The bill attaches a maximum penalty of $30,000 to any person who provides an early childhood service and enrols a child without the appropriate exemption or immunisation history required. It is also anticipated that the no jab no play bill will improve the recording of vaccines in the South Australian population, which, in turn, will protect our community by increasing the level of immunity as such a large percentage of the population would be immunised against specific diseases resulting in it becoming harder for vaccine-treatable diseases to spread. I commend the bill to members. I seek leave to have the explanation of clauses inserted into Hansard without my reading it.

Leave granted.

Explanation of Clauses

Part 1—Preliminary

1—Short title

2—Commencement

3—Amendment provisions

These clauses are formal.

Part 2—Amendment of South Australian Public Health Act 2011

4—Insertion of Part 12A

This clause inserts new Part 12A into the South Australian Public Health Act 2011 as follows:

Part 12A—Immunisation and Early Childhood Services

96A—Interpretation

This clause defines key terms used in the measure. For the purposes of the measure, an early childhood service is defined as a service for the education or care (or both) of young children provided for fee or reward but does not include the following services:

(a) the provision of primary education provided at or in connection with a primary school;

(b) a service comprising a person engaged by a parent or guardian of a child to baby sit the child in the child's home;

(c) a babysitting, playgroup or childminding service that is organised informally by the parents of the children concerned;

(d) a service provided for a child by a family member of the child or friend of the family of the child personally under an informal arrangement where no offer to provide that service was advertised;

(e) a service principally conducted to provide tuition to 1 child or a number of children who ordinarily reside together;

(f) a service principally conducted to provide instruction in a particular activity (such as sport, dance and music);

(g) a service where a parent or guardian of each child remains on site and is available to care for their child if required;

(h) a service comprising out of school care;

(i) care provided to a child by a person in accordance with a parenting order under the Family Law Act 1975 or Family Court Act 1997 of the Commonwealth;

(j) care provided to a child in accordance with an approval under the Children's Protection Act 1993;

(k) any other service, or service of a kind, prescribed by the regulations.

This clause also provides that a child meets the immunisation requirements if—

(a) an immunisation history statement indicates that the immunisation status of the child is up to date; or

(b) a document of a kind approved by the Chief Public Health Officer indicates that the child meets the immunisation requirements within the meaning of the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Act 1999 of the Commonwealth; or

(c) a certificate in writing issued by the Chief Public Health Officer indicates that the child meets the immunisation requirements.

96B—Requirement to provide immunisation records

This clause provides that the parent or guardian of a child that is enrolled, is to be enrolled, or attends at premises for the purposes of the provision of an early childhood service must provide immunisation records relating to the child to the provider of the service in accordance with the requirements of the Chief Public Health Officer.

The clause further provides that a provider of an early childhood service must, in respect of each child enrolled for the provision of the service, keep a copy of all immunisation records provided to the provider under the clause.

96C—Prohibition on providing early childhood services to children not meeting immunisation requirements

This clause provides that a person who provides an early childhood service must not enrol a child for the provision of the service, must suspend the existing enrolment of a child and must not provide an early childhood service to a child if—

(a) immunisation records relating to the child have not been provided to the person in accordance with clause 96B; or

(b) the child does not, according to immunisation records provided in accordance with clause 96B, meet the immunisation requirements.

A Maximum penalty of $30,000 is fixed.

96D—Requirement to provide information on outbreak of vaccine preventable disease

This clause provides that the Chief Public Health Officer may, if satisfied that there is an outbreak, or a risk of an outbreak, of a vaccine preventable disease at premises at which early childhood services are provided, require the person with responsibility for providing the service at the premises to provide to the Chief Public Health Officer—

(a) the name and date of birth of each child that is enrolled, or routinely attends, at the premises for the provision of an early childhood service; and

(b) current immunisation records relating to each child referred to in paragraph (a) provided under clause 96B; and

(c) the contact details for a parent or guardian of each child referred to in paragraph (a); and

(d) any other prescribed information.

If the Chief Public Health Officer requires the provision of information under the clause then the information must be provided within 1 business day of the requirement and a maximum penalty of $30,000 applies for a failure to comply.

96E—Prohibition on providing early childhood services to certain children on outbreak of vaccine preventable disease

This clause provides that the Chief Public Health Officer may, by notice in writing, direct that a specified child is excluded from attending at specified premises at which early childhood services are provided if satisfied that—

(a) the child has been diagnosed with a vaccine preventable disease; or

(b) there is an outbreak of a specified vaccine preventable disease at the premises and the child would, if the child attended at the premises, be at a material risk of contracting the vaccine preventable disease.

The clause provides that a person must not provide an early childhood service to a child at premises from which the child is excluded pursuant to a direction under the clause and a maximum penalty of $30,000 applies.

96F—Exemptions

This clause provides that the Chief Public Health Officer may, by notice in writing, grant an exemption from this Part or specified provisions of this Part—

(a) in relation to a specified child or children of a specified class; or

(b) to specified persons or persons of a specified class; or

(c) in relation to specified early childhood services or early childhood services of a specified class.

An exemption under this clause may—

(a) be subject to such conditions as the Chief Public Health Officer thinks fit; and

(b) apply for a specified period, until further notice or indefinitely; and

(c) vary according to the circumstances to which it is expressed to apply.

A person who contravenes or fails to comply with a condition of an exemption imposed under this section is guilty of an offence and a maximum penalty of $30,000 applies.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. T.J. Stephens.