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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 04 Hansard (Wednesday, 31 March 2004) . . Page.. 1408 ..

There are questions about how much would fully funded pneumococcal vaccine cost. According to Ms MacDonald the cost for a full childhood vaccination program is $60 million; hundreds of millions according to the minister’s office, although this was a quick on the phone response, not anything written; and $27 million for the first year according to the AMA. I am not quite clear on the costs.

My point is that I support raising the question about how well funded provision of vaccination for this disease is. But I would not feel comfortable supporting this motion as it stands. I would want to do more work on it and get some more opinions on it. If we as an Assembly are making a very strong statement on this matter about funding for this vaccination I want to be totally confident that it is necessary, that it is appropriate and that there is a better use of funds to ensure greater targeting of vaccination to ensure that those vulnerable groups—groups that are already listed such as indigenous, and children in child care and with parents that smoke—are accessing vaccination.

It would be irresponsible for me at this point to support this motion as it stands. However, I am happy to say that I am interested to see how the federal government, and other expert groups and stakeholders, see the need for this vaccination.

MR SMYTH (Leader of the Opposition) (12.03): I thank Ms Dundas for her amendment and I thank Ms MacDonald for bringing on the motion today. The intention is good. We need to constantly review and revise how we deal with infectious diseases and the immunisation regime that this country has. But we need to get it right. I note some of the words from Ms Tucker recently about the lack of knowledge that she has—and probably most of us have—about pneumococcal.

If members were to access the national childhood pneumococcal vaccination program website, they would see who is entitled to the vaccine now as a free service. There is a vaccination program; it is aimed at indigenous children living in Central Australia, who are 15 times more likely to acquire pneumococcal infections than non-indigenous children living in urban areas. We certainly have a problem there. It then goes on to state that if your child is in one of the following risk groups then your child is eligible for free vaccine under the national childhood pneumococcal vaccination program.

It includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children under the age of five, non-indigenous children living in Central Australia under the age of two and all children under the age of five with any of these medical risk factors. A full list of the factors is taken into consideration.

There is an interesting section on the website that asks whether the pneumococcal vaccine should be funded for all children in the future, the answer to which is, “The vaccine is being considered for future funding under the government’s national immunisation program”. I have been in contact with the office of Mr Abbott, the federal health minister, this morning. He is very interested in the concept. He is also very much aware that—unlike I think a figure of $60 million that was quoted to implement such a program—it would be hundreds of millions of dollars to provide the immunisation to all children free of charge.

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