Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's call for all states and territories to adopt a uniform stance on barring unvaccinated children from childcare and preschool facilities makes a great deal of sense.
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Under current legislation unvaccinated children in the ACT, along with those in South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, can be enrolled at these centres.
Children in the three most populous states, NSW, Victoria and Queensland, are excluded under what is effectively a "no jab, no pre-school policy".
The ACT Government's failure to bring the Territory into line with its much larger neighbour is almost ironic given Canberrans have the best track record on vaccinations in the country.
As of January 17 this year 94.87 per cent of all local children between 12 and 15 months were immunised. This was well above the national average of 93.41 per cent. Queensland, at 93.89 per cent, was the only other state above the average. Victoria was just below with a rate of 93.35 per cent against 93.31 per cent for NSW.
By the time children had reached school age, at between 60 and 63 months, Canberrans were still well up in the pack with 93.56 per cent having had their all their shots to that date.
These are excellent compliance figures and indicate that even without the big stick of exclusion, ACT health authorities have been able to get the vaccination message across to a young, culturally diverse and rapidly growing population.
The trouble is that when you spin the figures around more than five per cent, or one in 20, Canberra children had not been fully immunised by the time they were two years old. This, according to national health authorities, represents a significant health risk to themselves and other children.
These risks are magnified in a childcare or preschool environment where large numbers of children, some immunised and some not, are in close proximity with each other.
That risk was given a human face last week when Mr Turnbull met with Toni McCaffery who lost her daughter, Dana, to whooping cough in 2009. Dana was four weeks of age and too young to have had her shots.
Ms McCaffery, who recently said the family had been trolled by anti-vaxxers, is an active vaccination campaigner. She believes she inadvertently exposed Dana to whooping cough while dropping her other children off at a childcare centre where the bacteria was present and active.
It is difficult to disagree with her belief no Australian parents should lose a child to a preventible disease in the 21st century.
If Mr Turnbull receives bipartisan support for his "no jab, no preschool" call then this will be that much closer to becoming reality.
