Keep vax register in public hands: Labor

Labor is keeping up its attack on the privatisation of health, warning the vaccination register is to be sold off.

File image. Source: AAP

Confidential vaccination records of schoolchildren should not be allowed in private hands, says Labor.

A request for tender, published on the government's AusTender website in November, seeks the establishment and ongoing operation of the Australian School Vaccination Register.

The register will record adolescent vaccination details for all vaccines given through school programs and is to be operational in time for the 2017 school year.

Labor campaign spokesman Andrew Leigh said it was another example of the coalition's "privatisation by stealth" of the health system.

"This could potentially see the confidential details of the vaccination of Australian schoolchildren falling into private hands," Dr Leigh told AAP on Thursday.

Asked how it was different to private health insurers holding medical records, he said the vaccination register was compulsory.

"It's not something you can choose to opt in to - it is something that covers all Australian kids."

Labor backed the creation of a single national vaccination register, he said.