QLD Gov seeks feedback on vaccination legislation

In 2016, the Queensland Government amended the Public Health Act 2005 to give approved early childhood education and care (ECEC) services the power to exercise discretion regarding enrolment and attendance of children who are not up-to-date with their vaccinations. The state government is now keen to hear from services about the implementation of the legislation in practice to help determine whether any changes to the legislation are required.

Feedback can be provided by taking a short survey at this link.

Note, this survey relates to the Queensland Government legislation, not the Australian Government’s No Jab, No Pay law which took effect on the same day in 2016.

Under the Queensland legislation, approved ECEC services can ask parents to provide:

• an immunisation history statement from the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register (now the Australian Immunisation Register) when enrolling their child; and,
• an updated immunisation history statement when their child passes the vaccination age milestones of 2, 4, 6, 12, 18 months and 4 years.

Under this legislation, if a child’s vaccination status is not up-to-date, an approved ECEC service can choose to:

• refuse enrolment of the child;
• cancel enrolment or refuse attendance of the child; or,
• impose a condition on the child’s enrolment or attendance.

This legislative power to exclude children is discretionary and took effect from 1 January 2016.

The survey should be completed by ECEC service managers and/or a person in a

supervisory role.

The survey takes five minutes to complete and is open until 25 October. The survey is confidential, but de-identified data may be used for reporting purposes.

To take part in the survey, please click on this link.