Our domestic and family violence services are leaving kids behind

Throughout 2025, we have seen shocking revelations about systemic problems in the childcare system that failed to protect the safety of children. It was devastating to learn that the regulatory failings in this system led to adults being protected rather than the children in their care.

This is not intentional, but instead an outcome of the fact that child safety and wellbeing is not a national priority, leaving critical evidence-based recommendations for child safety reform sitting on shelves for decades.

Following widespread community outrage, government leaders across our federation have thankfully committed to fast-tracking some of these long-overdue reforms to improve safety in our childcare sector. However, the childcare sector is not the only place where you will find vulnerable children.

On 60 Minutes last night, we heard how children growing up in homes where there is violence are deeply traumatised and are frequently ignored or turned away by the services that should be helping them. This is because our justice and domestic violence support systems are primarily focused on adult victims. When they become involved with these systems, children and young people are typically sidelined and are unable to get the help they need for their unique needs for healing and recovery from trauma.

On 60 Minutes, we heard from Juliette Playford, who said she felt invisible in a system geared towards adult survivors of domestic and family violence, and like too many other children, she was never treated as a victim in her own right: “I wish someone … would just speak to me and ask me how I was doing and what I needed.”

This is something I repeatedly hear from children I speak to – that no one asks them what it is they need. And if the child protection system becomes involved, children often lose any control over the process.

Many will lose their family, their school, their trusted teachers, friends and teammates. The outcome for many children can be catastrophic.

Domestic and family violence is the most common form of child maltreatment. According to the landmark Australian Child Maltreatment Study, of the two-thirds of Australians who experienced one or more forms of child maltreatment, domestic and family violence accounted for the most common type: 40 per cent experienced violence in childhood.

This is a massive problem with significant life-long human and economic costs. Yet when the confronting findings of the study were made public last year, they received very little media attention and not a single front page report. This reinforces that culturally we have a blind spot about “childhood”, which we tend to see through rose-coloured glasses as a time of innocence when we are shielded from the realities of life.

The truth is that childhood is when we are most traumatised if we live in dangerous circumstances and our most important family relationships are compromised, harmful, or are taken away from us.

The harsh reality is that our service systems are simply not fit for purpose to address the unique needs of our most vulnerable children, needs that are different to those of the adults around them. And as the adults are struggling with their own challenges, children can end up with no one to turn to for help.

In the 60 Minutes program, we heard from Conor Pall, a young leader and advocate for children who experienced being turned away by services that should have helped him. Conor puts it plainly, pointing to “the illusion that if you are kind and thorough with adults, the needs of children will take care of themselves. They won’t”.

In Australia, we have opportunities to improve our service systems, but prioritising child safety, rights and wellbeing comes with a cost. So, we have important choices to make.

As I conclude my five years as National Children’s Commissioner, I am optimistic about Australia – a rich, developed and smart country, without the challenges and barriers that some other nations face. I am optimistic that in Australia, we can act on the evidence to improve our systems, and to make child safety, rights and wellbeing a national priority.

Taking action to prioritise the unmet needs of our youngest citizens is a choice. Let’s hope we make the right one.

Anne Hollonds is Australia’s National Children’s Commissioner.