This report provides an assessment of state and territory performance against 4 of the 5 performance benchmarks outlined in the National Partnership on Essential Vaccines (NPEV), for the first year of the agreement covering the assessment period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018.

The NPEV is an agreement between the Commonwealth of Australia and the states and territories, which aims ‘to protect the Australian public from the spread of vaccine preventable diseases through the cost-effective and efficient delivery of immunisation programs under the National Immunisation Program’.

The performance benchmarks assessed in this report are:

• an increase in vaccination coverage rates for 60–63 month olds relative to the baseline
• an increase in the vaccination coverage rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in at least two of the following three age cohorts: 12–15 months; 24–27 months; and 60–63 months, relative to the baseline
• an increase in vaccination coverage rates for 60–63 month olds in four of the ten lowest vaccination coverage SA3 geographical areas, relative to the baseline
• an annual decrease in the wastage and leakage rate for agreed vaccines, relative to the baseline.

The remaining benchmark, an increase in the vaccination coverage rate for both adolescent boys and adolescent girls for human papillomavirus relative to the baseline, was not assessed in this period due to the ongoing transition of data from the HPV Register into the Australian Immunisation Register. This benchmark will first be assessed in the second year of the agreement.