From the childcare scandal to regressive ‘tough on crime’ policies, Australia is failing to protect its children

L ooking back at the past five years since I began in the role of national children’s commissioner, I am struck by how difficult it has been throughout this time to get political attention on the unmet needs of our most vulnerable children, who continue to be “left behind”.

Far too many of these children end up in the overwhelmed child protection and justice systems because of poverty, disabilities, health and learning problems, discrimination and disadvantage.

Australia continues to fail on child safety and wellbeing because of fragmented policy and service systems across the federation.

In the post-Covid era, the unmet needs of our most vulnerable children have been sidelined in favour of adults’ concerns. To illustrate, the confronting data on the prevalence of child abuse in the Au