Health Minister Jillian Skinner's new law already under attack Tanya Plibersek, Meet the Press, Ep15, Seg 1 The Premier is said to have been critical of his Health Minister on the exemptions. LIBERAL MPs have slammed the Health Minister over religious exemptions that enable unvaccinated children to bypass new laws and be admitted into childcare. It is also understood Premier Barry O'Farrell was highly critical of Health Minister Jillian Skinner's decision to include the exemptions in the new bill. Loopholes in federal laws grant vaccine exemptions on philosophical, religious or medical grounds to parents who refuse to immunise their children. New laws were passed in NSW last week following a successful campaign by The Sunday Telegraph and The Daily Telegraph to allow childcare centres to refuse non-immunised children. Bill Gates urges Aussies to vaccinate their kids "No Jab, No Play" launched Sign up here. Vaccines and venom. Since then many MPs have voiced frustrations over the Health Mminister's failure to close the exemption loopholes. "There is a lot of concern ... about maintaining the Commonwealth's spurious exemptions," one Liberal source said. There's no point making ineffective legislation - to fabricate a religious institution to avoid vaccination is outrageous. The Australian Vaccination Network, which has railed against immunisation, told followers to join the Church of Conscious Living in a bid to skirt around the new laws. The Sunday Telegraph understands the exemptions were not addressed in the state laws on NSW Health's advice to avoid situations where unvaccinated children - who would be refused access to mainstream childcare - would be clustered into their own childcare facilities. It was feared disease "hotspots" could then form. Give GPs a shot at solving vaccination problem FAMILY doctors are on the frontline of the battle to encourage parents to vaccinate their kids but the opposition's Peter Dutton fears some have "disengaged" from tough conversations with parents. Blaming the increasing workload of GPs, Tony Abbott's health spokesman has pledged that if he is health minister after the September 14 election, GPs will get more support to have the tough discussions with parents about vaccination. "I think there is a greater need for GPs to have hard discussions with parents," Mr Dutton said. ``I think there has been some disengagement by GPs who believe the Gillard government is not making it easier." A father of three, Mr Dutton said under an Abbott government a key role for Labor's Medicare Local - which helps co-ordinate GPs, nursing and other health professionals - would be to tackle the immunisation challenge. For our future, vaccinate "I think it should be the first charge of Medicare Local to increase vaccination rates," Mr Dutton said. GPs are under the pump. In response to the ``No Jab, No Play" campaign run by the The Sunday Telegraph and The Daily Telegraph since May 5, Tony Abbott has promised to work with states to allow individual childcare centres to ban ``vaccine refusers." At present in most states, childcare centre operators are legally unable to turn away unvaccinated children, although they may temporarily exclude such children when there is an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease such as measles. Shadow health minister Peter Dutton and his family. Wife Kirilly, daughter Rebecca and sons Harry and Tom. Picture: David Kelly Source: The Sunday Telegraph Our campaign is asking the federal government to close a loophole which presently allows parents to obtain the childcare rebate - which is supposed to be for vaccinated children only - by claiming to be ``conscientious objectors" to vaccination. The Gillard government has so far refused to act. Mr Abbott said any exemption from immunisation should only be based on clear religious reasons or due to medical reasons that are already covered by the Australian Immunisation Handbook. Sorry kid, but you'll thank us later Mr Abbott said in May: "If parents are receiving a childcare payment, I believe part of receiving that payment is an obligation to have your child immunised so they can safety participate in childcare centres." "This is a policy area that the Coalition is examining closely and we will have more to say about it before the election," Mr Abbott said. Mr Dutton said yesterday: ``I think we should be open to all sorts of sanctions. Parents have a duty not just to their own kids but to others. Former MasterChef host Sarah Wilson has caused controversy after she appeared to advocate the anti-vaccination movement. Courtesy: Sunrise, Channel Seven I am completely and utterly against parents who for their own selfish beliefs don't vaccinate their kids. I think there are options you could look at but I would like to see evidence that they work. But NSW Australian Medical Association president Brian Owler said he doubted GPs were shirking their responsibility to talk to parents. Australian parents are facing more pressure to vaccinate school children in a Government crackdown. The GP usually knows the family or patient well. They can guide them in terms of making an informed decision based on proper knowledge, not on rubbish on the internet," Associate Professor Owler said. This is part of what GPs do. It's about not alienating them into believing the conspiracy theorists and charlatans. There's a lot of misinformation on the internet.