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Waleed Aly, article from The Age 2015 “No jab no pay”

The Australian government has announced a new policy that excludes parents with unvaccinated children from accessing welfare payments. This prompted Waleed Aly to publish an article in The Age regarding his personal views in 2015 on the new "no jab, no pay" policy put in place by the Abbott government. Aly argues that this move is unnecessarily harsh and is not as effective as the public may imagine, instead recommending anti-vaxxers to be persuaded rather than placed under a "sledgehammer" decision. His tone is serious and composed, and partially discredits the idea of entirely blaming them for their ideas and reveals the ineffectiveness of such policies. The image in Aly's article illustrates his argument against the sweeping nature of the government's exclusion of anti-vaxxers from welfare payments, depicting the intentions of a parent who chooses not to vaccinate their child in a different light. This supports his overall contention of finding an alternative solution in place of "[expressing] who we hate." Aly suggests that the method used by the Abbott government that resulted in this new policy should be reconsidered in regards to his argument that empathises with anti-vaxx parents, yet does not justify their decisions. This allows the audience to more easily find a grounds on which to agree with his viewpoint, as he questions the use of "[venting] rage" against them instead of criticising the widespread condemnation faced by anti-vaxxers. Aly uses rhetorical questions to further emphasise on the reconsideration of society's mindset towards them, and asks "Is that the aim though?" in regards to "[excommunicating]" such people. His tone shifts towards lightly criticising the one-sided view that is portrayed of parents that choose not to vaccinate their children, stating that it "isn't some garden variety act of neglect or parental irresponsibility." Rather, Aly illustrates that the antivaccination movement is "not a politics of selfishness. It is instead a politics about power." He calls the deprivation of welfare a method of "expressing who we hate" in place of a punishment for sharing views that go against modern medicine and put others at risk. This argument is accentuated by the cartoon in the article which depicts a parent attempting to save their child from what is believed to be a product of risk. Aly attempts to inspire some reconsideration in the readers through this graphic, which illustrates the decisions made by a parent who wants to keep their child are more akin to "a conviction" rather than "neglect". In this way, the author attempts to alter the mindset of the readers of the article and create more empathy for those parents choosing not to vaccinate their children....