Child abuse is a blight on us all

These are consistent with the best evidence from countries that most successfully improve child wellbeing and minimise child abuse and neglect.

We need a universal system of home visits and assessments by nurses in the first instance and other professionals in the follow-up phase, if required.

We need greater public awareness about the long-term consequences of child abuse and neglect.

Local governments need federal and state support to build child-friendly communities that include safe play areas and areas for young people to meet and socialise, libraries, child-care centres and early childhood education centres. Just like roads and rubbish collection, these are essential elements of local infrastructure. They are vital for developing healthy children.

UNICEF's report in 2007 Child poverty in perspective: An overview of child wellbeing in rich countries (PDF 1.52MB) says that "the true measure of a nation's standing is how well it attends to its children - their health and safety, their material security, their education and socialisation, and their sense of being loved, valued and included in the families and societies into which they are born".

In Australia this means revaluing our children, something that must be done for humanitarian and compassionate reasons as much as for economic reasons.