The Australian Federal government is planning to amend its social welfare policies to make the continually expanding national schedule of vaccines compulsory for children of all ages to receive government welfare benefits. In this proposed legislation, the Social Services Minister is removing conscientious objection to vaccination (a medical intervention) based on ‘personal, philosophical or religious’ objections.
This has serious consequences for the right of parents to give informed consent to medical interventions i.e. vaccination, and to be aware of the substances entering their children’s developing bodies.
The minister is also implementing an adult vaccination register to monitor vaccinations from birth to death.
Under the proposed legislation children aged from birth to 19 years will be compelled to have at least 43 doses of vaccines via combined genetically engineered vaccines and re-vaccinations to receive financial benefits. This already large number of vaccines is likely to increase in the future and the policy, titled ‘Choices for Families’ removes parents choices.
A public forum is being organised in Sydney to discuss the Federal governments removal of the public’s right to give informed consent before vaccination. A policy must be able to stand up to scrutiny by the public on whom it will be enforced. During the forum we will discuss the government’s ‘No Jab No Pay’ policy that will make vaccination compulsory for children of all ages to access government financial benefits. A professional panel representing different perspectives of the government’s proposed legislation is being organised to examine the question ‘Has the safety, efficacy and necessity of the vaccines on the Federal Government’svaccination schedule been conclusively demonstrated?
The public forum will be held at 6.00 pm on Thursday 15 October 2015 at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). The government has been invited to present the arguments for this policy and myself and another professional will be speaking against this policy. There will also be a panel discussion of the community’s questions. This discussion will be filmed for a UTS student documentary and seats are limited. Here is the invitation to the event. Participants are asked to RSVP and to send their questions in advance to the email provided.
A government policy that removes the right to informed consent before vaccination requires community debate and it is important to consider the consequences this policy of government mandated vaccination might have for choices about other medical interventions. Submissions for the Senate Committee Inquiry into this legislation close on 16 October 2015.
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