Cost deters some on child safety

SBS
March 15, 2015

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/03/16/cost-deters-some-child-safety

A national approach to the protection of up to 50,000 children in care would not have the full support of all states and territories, a royal commission has heard.

The second week of a hearing into out-of-home care across Australia was told on Monday that some jurisdictions thought the time and money involved in changing laws and information technology systems were not worth it because it might "not improve client outcomes".

The commission was told that mandatory reporting obligations for suspected child sexual abuse were applied differently across the country - with some jurisdictions excluding kinship carers.

There are also great variations in reporting practices with some carers required to tell the relevant departments while others must go straight to the police.