On Sunday 20 September many concerned Australians protested former Prime Minister, Tony Abbott’s, ‘No Jab No Pay’ policy which is now before a  Senate Committee for Inquiry.
In Western Australia, the media has not reported on the important human rights that are being lost with this proposed policy or the reasons why many concerned Australians took to the streets in their capital cities last Sunday.
Instead, the West Australian medical editor, wrote an article a few days before the event that associated the rally with abusive comments taken from a social media website that were unrelated to the rally.

The journalist, in an opinion piece, chose to describe these Freedom of Choice rallies under the heading “Anti-vaccination lobby stoops to a new low” (Cathy O’Leary, 16 September 2015) and chose to ignore the reasons for the public’s concern about the No Jab No Paypolicy.
Freedom to choose how many vaccines we use is being removed through the use of financial rewards such as welfare payments and employment.
This is being facilitated by payments to doctors to increase the number of people they vaccinate.
These strategies are coercive and pressure people to use vaccines for their livelihood. It is also a step towards compulsory vaccination for all.
The reasons for the National rallies were clearly outlined in the flyer for the Perth event and the National Website for the rallies but this information was ignored by the journalist to distract people from the real issues.

The article by Cathy O’Leary misrepresented the rallies by describing the event as ‘anti-vaccination’, a ‘conspiracy theory’ and by associating the movement with ‘vaccination lies’ and abusive comments from social media – all designed to remove the focus from the following important issues:

• the removal of choice in the use of vaccines
• the removal of philosophical and religious exemption (where opposition to vaccination is not formally registered by a religion).
• the introduction of an adult immunisation register to monitor vaccination status from birth to death for everyone.
• the addition of new vaccines to the recommended schedule that are now mandatory
• the lack of information provided to the public on the ingredients and adverse events linked to vaccines.
• the lack of liability by the government and vaccine manufacturers for a product that is described as ‘unavoidably unsafe’ by the US CDC.Like all articles on vaccination in the Australian media there is no balance or accurate reporting of this health issue. This endangers public health. In addition, public forums organised by the community are being prevented by lobby groups such as the Australian Skeptics and Stop the Australian Vaccination Network (SAVN).
  Like most other Australian media (other than channel 9 in Melbourne), the West Australian  did not cover the rallies that were held successfully on 20 September 2015.
  Here are some pictures from the rallies that have not been published in the mainstream Australian media – even though this bill is currently being addressed in parliament.