The government’s No Jab No Pay policy - which withholds the Family Tax Benefit Part A supplement and childcare subsidies from families who choose not to vaccinate their children in accordance with the national schedule is unreasonable, unethical and unconscionable in a free and democratic country like ours.
And it’s the only law in the world that ties a person’s access to government social support payments to compliance with a medical procedure!
Welfare payments being used as coercive leverage against parents for personal health choices, targeting parents least able to absorb a loss of payments, punishing young families, single parents, and low-income Australians who are already doing it tough.
Coercion is not good policy - it’s lazy and unethical governance.
It erodes trust in public health and undermines informed decision-making – two cornerstones of safe and ethical healthcare.
But it seems daring to question a doctor about vaccines – how safe is it? what’s in it? has it been tested? is seen as a radical and extremist concept.
You’d have thought the ability to have a conversation - weigh risks and benefits - and decline a medical product without facing fear of financial reprisal from your own government would be the automatic right of any person or parent – and not just a right, but encouraged!
We must be better than this! We must stand for informed consent, not enforced compliance. We must return to a framework where health decisions are personal, not political —and where families are not punished for asking questions.
Repealing No Jab No Pay is not an anti-vaccine position. It’s a pro-choice, pro-ethics position.
The government should never hold your child’s welfare hostage to your medical decisions.
The line has been crossed and it’s well past time we drew it back.
