Wing-nuts, flat-earthers, weird, wacky and wrong. Wilful manslaughter. Potentially murderous. The language in the NSW Parliament condemning the Australian Vaccination Network and its hijack of the internet to spread an anti-vaccination message couldn't have been stronger. Both sides of politics piled it on.

Vaccination rates are plummeting in Sydney. The childhood diseases measles and whooping cough are resurgent. ''Young people die because of the information [AVN] provides and it should be held to account,'' Clayton Barr, the Labor member for Cessnock, said in support of a O'Farrell government bill.

Photo: Craig Abraham

A massive outbreak of measles in Britain this year, the worst since surveillance began in 1994, has public health officials there pointing the finger at the anti-vaccination movement. Legislation before the NSW upper house this week, and expected to pass with bipartisan support, is seeking to prevent an outbreak on a similar scale in NSW.

Vaccination rates plummeted in Britain a decade ago after a now discredited medical journal report linked the measles vaccine with autism. While vaccination rates there have since risen, unvaccinated 10- to 14-year-olds are the biggest group falling ill this year.