UNLESS you’ve been stationed on Mars, you couldn’t fail to be aware of the horrific stories of abuse that have been made public by the Royal Commission into the Institutional Response to Child Abuse.
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The scale of the stories of abuse has been shocking, almost as shocking as the systemic failures to deal with these abuses.
There can be little doubt that these failures have been widespread, long-term and, frankly, dreadful.
It is not surprising then, that, one of Australia's most senior child protection bureaucrats has expressed concern with the way governments monitor incidents of child abuse within religious institutions.
The ABC has reported that NSW Deputy Ombudsman Steve Kinmond runs a watchdog scheme that checks how schools, churches, childcare and foster care agencies handle complaints of child abuse.
He said there was a "hodgepodge" arrangement in place where some religious institutions were covered by his watchdog functions and others were not.
"We have a curious situation, and somewhat unhelpful situation where some religious organisations come under our jurisdiction and some don't," Mr Kinmond was quoted as saying.
"The issue that the churches have raised is that they are required to have working with children checks, but we have a hodgepodge arrangement as to whether the church or part of the church is under our jurisdiction.
"As a result of this arrangement that is not grounded in a rational basis, the Catholic and Anglican church leaders have come to us and said this needs to change."
As the public hearings for the royal commission began to wrap up, we have to face some confronting questions.
I would have thought one of the biggest was why Australia has federal departments of health and education, but child protection remains an issue splintered by state borders.
Talk to anyone who works in the system and they’ll be able to confirm that at-risk families often manage to avoid welfare authorities by upping sticks and relocating over the border.
Children remain at risk of harm because of arbitrary lines on a map.
Indeed, already others are calling for a federalized approach to child protection.
The ABC reported that Peter Gogarty, a prominent advocate for church abuse survivors who was abused by a Catholic priest as a child, said he did not think states were doing enough to protect children.
He is calling for the establishment of a new national watchdog to look over institutions entrusted with the care of children.
"We've got a regulatory organisation called APRA (Australian Prudential Regulation Authority), which any financial institution must subscribe, must obey their directives," Mr Gogarty said.
"I think if it's good enough in our country for our money to be safeguarded to that extent, then I think it goes without saying that our children need something similar to that."
The bottom line is that there are not always guarantees that adding more layers of red tape and bureaucracy is helpful, but something needs to be done to encourage great sharing of information and resources between states.
Child protection is a vitally important service, and it’s about time case workers were regarded as being as important to society as police officers, fire fighters, paramedics and other medical staff.
