The WA Government has introduced new regulations which allow the Health Department to ban unvaccinated and under-vaccinated children from going to school during disease outbreaks.

From January 1, kindergartens, schools and childcare centres will be required to collect and report on the immunisation status of children in their care.

The information will be made available to the Health Department so it can identify children whose vaccines are not up-to-date and order that they stay home if there is a disease outbreak at their school or childcare centre.

School principals face being fined up to $1,000 if they allow a child to come to school against the Health Department's orders, as do the owners of childcare centres.

The McGowan Government is also planning to introduce a bill to expand on those powers and allow WA's chief health officer to ban under-vaccinated children from enrolling in childcare and kindergarten in the first place.

New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland have introduced similar "no jab, no play" laws which have seen immunisation rates rise in those states.

'It's about protecting the kids'

Health Minister Roger Cook said in many cases, parents were simply overlooking their obligations.

"This program is more about supporting those families to make sure that they have the information they need and the access to the services they need to keep their kids' immunisations up to speed," he said.

"There are some families, of course, who object to the whole notion of immunisation and, well quite frankly, we won't make any excuses.

"This is about protecting kids and the vulnerable people in our community from communicable diseases."

WA's rates of vaccination are among the lowest in Australia. ( ABC News: Natasha Johnson )

Mr Cook said the Government did not want to deny children education for decisions made by their parents, so the ban would not be applied to any children in Year 1 or above.

"We believe that's an important principle, that we don't exclude kids and penalise them by withholding them from education for decisions that they, of course, aren't responsible for taking," he said.

"But we do believe that, in relation to childcare and kindergarten, it's important that WA joins the other states in having 'no jab, no play' laws because we know that it's the best way to protect kids from serious and potentially deadly diseases."

But Sydney University vaccination policy researcher Julie Leask said she was concerned the changes would not sway some parents to get their children vaccinated, and could have unintended negative consequences.

"From the research that we've done with non-vaccinating parents there is certainly a decent sized group of parents who aren't going to change with legislation like this," Associate Professor Leask said.

"I think the right balance for legislation like this is, yes, to have requirements that children need to be up to date before they enter childcare because it serves as an important reminder for those parents who just haven't got around to it.

"But that there needs to be some exemptions for those who won't vaccinate regardless of the legislation, so their children are not punished for the decisions of their parents," she said.

WA vaccination rates below average

According to the Health Department, 95 per cent of children must be fully immunised to efficiently prevent outbreaks of diseases such as measles.

In 2017 WA's immunisation coverage was the lowest of any state or territory for children aged one (93.38 per cent) and five (92.17 per cent), with two-year-olds in WA having the second-lowest rate of immunisation in the country — 89.1 per cent, behind only the Northern Territory with 88.44 per cent.

Australian Medical Association WA president Omar Khorshid said those were rates to be ashamed of and he welcomed the proposed bill as a measure to reverse them.

Dr Khorshid said there were pockets of unvaccinated children in the community who could be devastated by infectious diseases.

"What these laws will do is give the Health Department and the chief health officer the power to make sure we don't have these pockets of unvaccinated children in our kindergartens and preschools," he said.

"Vaccinations are generally free, so for parents to not have vaccinated their children they need to have taken an active stand, and so they need to see the consequences of that stand on their children.

"The vast majority of parents already make the right decisions, and those few who are too busy or have forgotten or don't have really, really strong views, I think, will take the right steps once these laws come into place."

The ban will only apply to children in pre-primary and below. ( StockSnap.io: Freestocks.org )

Overseas travel remains a risk

Dr Khorshid said vaccines had seen the majority of infectious diseases all but disappear from Australian GP clinics and schools. But he said it was still common for people to bring back diseases, such as measles, from overseas holidays, which risked causing outbreaks in unvaccinated schools.

He said parents who chose not to vaccinate their children were putting at risk the vulnerable in the community, including young children, pregnant women, people with immune deficiencies and some cancer patients.

"We know if you get vaccinations up above 95 per cent then those who either aren't immunised for medical reasons or for whom the vaccinations don't work properly, then they will also get the benefit of all the other children being immunised," he said.

"That's most stark with the very young children who can't be immunised against whooping cough. They are a vulnerable group and our job as a community is to protect them from whooping cough by making sure that the other children are fully vaccinated."

Shadow health minister Sean L'Estrange said the bill was a commonsense measure which would see bipartisan support.

"The Opposition supports any efforts to improve the eradication of disease and certainly, with the rest of the world, sees vaccination as a key tool in fighting disease and preventing disease," he said.

If the bill passes it would likely come into effect for childcare services in July 2019, and in 2020 for kindergartens.