A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Amendment (No Jab No Pay Repeal) Bill 2025

Summary

This legislation repeals the 'No Jab No Pay' policy that currently withholds family payments from parents who don't vaccinate their children. It amends the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Act 1999 to remove vaccination requirements as a condition for receiving Family Tax Benefit and other parenting payments. Families who lost access to government support because they chose not to vaccinate their children would become eligible again to receive these payments. This restores access to financial assistance for an estimated number of Australian families and changes the government's approach to vaccination by removing the financial penalty that was previously used to encourage immunisation.

What happens at this stage

The main debate on whether the chamber supports the broad purpose of the bill. Members speak to its overall merits and concerns rather than the fine print. The government outlines its policy intentions; the opposition and crossbench put their case. This is the stage that determines whether the bill proceeds at all.

Next: Consideration in Detail (House) or Committee of the Whole (Senate), where the bill is examined clause by clause