In Australia, as in many other countries, we find it immensely difficult to get children’s issues on the radar screens of politicians or newspaper editors. Occasionally we get stories about the lack of childcare places, or concern about numbers of children diagnosed with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder and who have medications prescribed for them. And from time to time there are distressing accounts of child physical or sexual abuse.

These little blips on the radar screen are inevitably of short duration, and quickly disappear into the dustbin of yesterday’s news. The children’s issues that do get into the public consciousness are usually so transient that they are unlikely to threaten the comfort zones of politicians or bureaucrats or disturb their sleep habits.

One of the reasons that children’s issues don’t seem to gather much momentum is that they are often reported locally. Australia is a federation with clearly defined differing roles of commonwealth and state governments. This means that the array of services that cater for young children and their families is a shared responsibility between the different levels of government, a situation that creates ideal conditions for evasion of responsibility and for buck passing. This confusing hybrid …