Child Abuse and Neglect: a socio-legal Study of Mandatory Reporting in Australia

‘Physical injury’ is not confined to injury caused by physical abuse – it may include some situations of neglect, so that some instances of neglect fall within the mandatory reporting provisions

While it would be unusual to do so, and would arguably be poor drafting which needs to be remedied, it is arguable that some instances of ‘physical injury’ caused by neglect could also be embraced by subsection (c) which deals generally with physical injury. This argument is supported by the fact that subsection (c) uses the term ‘physical injury’ rather than ‘physical abuse’, and by a claim that this term seems logically capable of applying to cases of ‘physical injury’ caused by neglect where the child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm as a result of that ‘physical injury’. This argument would conclude, for example, that a child suffering ‘physical injury’ from life-threatening malnutrition, or from failure to receive necessary medical care, would activate the reporting duty in (c).

However, as well as requiring a multiple characterisation of the consequence of the neglect as ‘physical injury’ under (c) in addition to the harm to ‘physical development or health’ as specified in subsection (f), this claim is not as strong as the alternative view.