Where that is absent or is not guaranteed in a realistic way it calls into question the very structures of the society itself. The unfortunate circumstance is that children and young persons in Australia are not guaranteed this right, they are not free of abuse and neglect. There are in Australia approximately 100,000 reports by the community to the State or Territory departments of abuse or neglect each year. Investigations of those reports do not support concerns that these reports are without foundation or are malicious, or officious interference by outsiders in the family. The rate of substantiation by the Department of the increased notifications is as great as, indeed, slightly greater than, the substantiation rate was in early years for much lower numbers.
Reports represent the tip of the iceberg.
It is apparent that we have a vast problem of hidden and only partially disclosed abuse of children and young persons. The remarkable increase in the number of reports or disclosures of sexual abuse of young children in recent times could in itself attract a separate paper, indeed, a separate conference, but it is illustrative of the basic problems that we are concerned with. So I propose to concentrate on one or two aspects. I do that because it would be impractical to attempt to cover the whole spectrum of child protection in the time available, particularly in Australia where the picture varies considerably from State to State. The reasons for that have become increasingly obvious as time has gone by.