Dionne Rose, Parliamentary Reporter

LIGHTBOURNE

Opposition spokesperson on Children's Affairs, Senator Dorothy Lightbourne, has made an urgent plea for the Government to establish a children's registry and to bring regulations to Parliament for the Child Care and Protection Act.

The senator made the appeal while making her contribution to the debate on the Interception (Wiretap) bill in the Senate on Friday.

She said that while the Child Care and Protection Act was passed in 2004, the Government is yet to bring the regulations to the Parliament for debate.

Put act to work

"I note that we are bringing an offence under Section 10 of the Child Care and Protection Act - the trafficking of children. Of course, this will be of no effect unless we get the Child Care and Protection Act working.

"We need the regulations for the Child Care and Protection Act to get the act going," she added. "We still don't have the Children's Registry and the regulations for the Children's Registry," she said.

Lightbourne said the establish-ment of the registry would assist in getting information to the authorities for them to follow up on.

In response to Senator Light-bourne's concerns, Leader of Government Business in the Senate, Senator A.J. Nicholson, said that he was reliably informed that the registry should be up and running by January.

Role of registry

Mandated by the Child Care and Protection Act 2004, the Children's Registry's role is to receive information supplied by persons who suspect that a child has been, or is in danger of being abandoned, neglected, physically or sexually ill-treated, or is in need of care and protection.

The penalty for not making a report is a maximum fine of $500,000 or six months in prison, or both.