Issue – Child neglect 
In Australia, child neglect still remains a very serious problem. Child neglect often causes devastating impacts on children including their behavioral issues, health issues, educational difficulties and many times also mental health. These are long term issues that children have to face if neglected and Australian government needs to take serious actions to curb this issue.
According to data available, children aged 0-14 years have faced serious injury which became the leading cause of deaths in Australia. Assault was one of the major reasons that resulted in the deaths of children. The toll was very high in 2006 where 241 children were found dead due to various injuries which are surely a case of negligence. This toll was provided by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. On an average, 25 Australian children are brutally killed by their parents on a yearly basis. An agency stated that over 1000 cases of child neglect cases, that were reported, were due to not getting support from any of the child protection authorities. It also gave a statistical report that more than 70% of the child neglect cases were only related with the indigenous Australian children.
The children found to have suffered neglect were removed from their homes and placed in out-of-home care by the child protection authorities. Almost 35,900 children were settled in out-of-homecare in 2010. 30% of the children were of the age between 0-14 years, further 30% were of the age group of 5-9 years, 25% were aged less than 5 years and the remaining 15% were between 15-17 years.
In one such famous case, a woman in South Australia was charged for child neglect case. She was 31 years old and lived with 21 young children in a house in Adelaide’s north. She used to beat the children, starve them and also forced them to stand up all day. Cases like these are still a big challenge for Australian child right organizations.
A committee was established to record child deaths due to neglect and with an idea of recommending the required suggestions for eliminating child neglect issues from the society. Child protection statistics is the only best available report that shows the problem of child neglect in Australia.
