Report of the Health Select Committee’s Inquiry into “How to improve [increase] immunisation [vaccination] completion rates” in New Zealand

Dear Friends,

On March 24, 2011, the Report of the Health Select Committee’s Inquiry into “How to improve [increase] immunisation [vaccination] completion  rates” in New Zealand which was published on the parliamentary website. The government has six weeks to respond to the report.

The full report is posted at this link:

  http://www.parliament.nz/NR/rdonlyres/BADCF722-D377-4451-8602-1E00938BFC74/188894/DBSCH_SCR_5060_Inquiryintohowtoimprovecompletionra.pdf 

The Health Select Committee (under the leadership of Dr Paul Hutchison) has produced a report that not only recommends raising the targeted vaccination completion rate to 95% for NZ children aged 0-4.  It also proposes a target be set for 11 year olds.

The report also recommends that the government make children’s enrollment at early childhood centres and schools dependent on parents producing proof of their children’s vaccination status and – even more ominously – suggests that government consider linking “existing parental benefits” to vaccination.

If the government accepts the recommendations in the report, it appears that parents will be forced to choose whether their child has no vaccinations – or all vaccinations on the schedule.  Moreover, it is also possible that parents who do not comply with this “all or nothing” approach to vaccination (for example those who want their children to have some vaccines, but not others) may face financial penalties.  

The report represents a significant attack on parents’ rights to make health care decisions for their children.

We are in an election year; if you disagree with the recommendations in the report,  please act now to let all political parties know that you find this unacceptable.

Please forward this message widely and visit the website www.noforcedvaccines.org  as soon as you can for more information and for ideas  on how you can help with the campaign to resist the erosion of human rights threatened by this Report.

Yours sincerely,

Katherine Smith