However, not everyone thinks the new plans to penalise parents who don't get their children immunised will work, with many believing education could be a better option.

Immunisation rates in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven are considerably higher than the state and national average, but there are some areas that are sitting at a level that could cause a potential outbreak of disease.

In some suburbs like Russell Vale and Woonona, the number of one-year-olds fully vaccinated in 2012-2013 was 95.2 per cent, well above the NSW average of 90.1 per cent.

At the other end of the scale, Berkeley had the lowest number of vaccinated one-year-olds, with just 83.9 per cent, while surrounding areas like Port Kembla also were below average.

Experts believe this could be due to the low socio-economic status of the region, with a lack of education about vaccinations and the public health system leading mums and dads to become quite sceptical.

"Economic disadvantage has a huge correlation on the health status of children ... it reflects the low education and health literacy of the parents that have young kids," said Abhijeet Ghosh, from the Illawarra Shoalhaven Medicare Local.

Mr Ghosh said it was not that parents didn't understand a lot of healthcare was free, but more they didn't understand the process of what a vaccination injection did to the body.

"That is knowledge you gain once you speak to health professionals, or you've explained all of that in [the context of] immunisation or general health - and all of those are not accessed to the extent as they would be in more economically affluent suburbs."

Other Wollongong northern suburbs including Scarborough, Thirroul, Wombarra, Austinmer, Clifton, and Coledale were also just below the average immunisation rate at 89.5 per cent.

Shell Cove GP Dr Carl Simpson has more than 30 years' experience and said most parents were quite enthusiastic to bring their children in for vaccinations, especially once they had spoken to a doctor or nurse about how it worked and why they should do it.

"Some areas may be more suspicious of authority and therefore resistant ... while in high socio-economic areas [they refuse] because they're highly educated and feel they can research things themselves," said Dr Simpson.

"It's a natural thing and a good thing to be sceptical to a certain extent, and want to know the background ... but often you get an unbalanced view from picking up things from the internet."

Dr Simpson said parents not wanting to vaccinate a child might have good intentions, but it was a "selfish point of view" thinking their child would be OK if everyone else was immunised.

He said it only took vaccination rates to drop to 85-90 per cent to cause outbreaks of disease.

Beginning on January 1, 2016, the government will end the conscientious objector exemption on children's vaccination for access to taxpayer-funded childcare benefits, the Childcare Rebate and the Family Tax Benefit Part A end-of-year supplement.

Existing exemptions on medical or religious grounds will continue, although a religious objection will only be available where the person is affiliated with a religious group that has formally registered the objection and it has been approved by the government.

The Christian Science Church in Wollongong is one organisation that is registered, because it believes in the healing power of prayer.

A church spokesman said there were no mandatory rules for the church's followers, and the decision was entirely up to the individual.

Contrary to the fears of Social Services Minister Scott Morrison, they were not seeing parents lining up at their reading rooms to try to get a "vaccination leave pass", the spokesman said.

Many health professionals agreed the new measures would make some difference in lifting the rates but said that, to make a strong impact, they needed to also give people the right information.

Mr Ghosh, who is co-ordinator for epidemiology and research for the Illawarra Shoalhaven Medicare Local, said too many people relied on "crappy information from Dr Google".

"[The changes] will most probably have a positive effect, but I can't stress enough the effectiveness of education ... if you know what's right and what's wrong, that knowledge will last with you, so the education component is what will make it sustainable."

Kath Weston is a senior lecturer in public health at the University of Wollongong, and previously worked in the field in western Sydney.

She agrees there might be other strategies that the government could implement instead of a "carrot-and-stick approach" that would help gain the trust of parents.

"I don't know if the changes will have an effect on the people who have strong philosophical views or strong anti-vaccination stances," she said.

"It's possible there's a need for better engagement with the community to understand why people make particular decisions ... and a need to possibly provide positive messages about being vaccinated and the benefits."