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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 04 Hansard (Wednesday, 31 March 2004) . . Page.. 1403 ..

will do what is right for Australian children and provide them with free pneumococcal vaccine. I commend the motion to the Assembly.

MR CORBELL (Minister for Health and Minister for Planning) (11.40): I am pleased to rise in the Assembly today for a very valid and important matter for the Assembly to discuss; that is, the availability of the pneumococcal vaccine to Canberrans and particularly to young Canberrans—children in the ACT.

The first part of Ms MacDonald’s motion deals with a call on the federal government to accept the recommendation of the National Health and Medical Research Council to provide pneumococcal vaccine free to all Australian children.

In September 2003 the Australian government accepted the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation—or ATAGI as it is known—recommendation of the universal pneumococcal vaccine for all Australian children. Currently, the pneumococcal vaccine is on the Australian standard vaccination schedule recommended for all children at two, four and sixth months of age. It is currently available free to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children under two years and all children under five years with specified medical conditions.

At this stage it is not a vaccine broadly available to the child community here in the ACT, or indeed in any other part of Australia, free of charge. The conditions that specify in what circumstances it is available free of charge are set out in the schedule of vaccines provided free under the national immunisation program.

It is highly unusual that the federal government took the decision not to fund this particular vaccine free of charge to all children in Australia. It is unusual for the government to decline funding for these sorts of recommendations. The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation is a well-respected professional body which makes sensible and reasoned decisions on what vaccines should be made available and at what cost or, indeed, free of charge, here in Australia.

The second part of Ms MacDonald’s motion expresses a concern at the federal government’s decision not to implement the council’s recommendation, which disadvantages many low income families who will not be able to afford the $600 vaccination. As Ms MacDonald has already pointed out, all children are not eligible for free vaccine at the moment, and the cost of accessing the vaccines is approximately $100 to $150 per dose. Babies aged between two and six months require three doses of the vaccine, whereas babies aged between seven months and 17 months require two doses—clearly an extremely expensive proposition for most families here in the ACT.

As Ms MacDonald rightly points out, pneumococcal infection is more prevalent than infection resulting from the various strains of meningococcal, and indeed the Commonwealth government generously funds free immunisation for meningococcal C as part of its free immunisation program. The ACT government provides funding to assist in the distribution of that vaccination.

For children over the age of 17 months there is a need for only one dose of the vaccine, consistent with the National Health and Medical Research Council’s recommendations.

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