Protecting children from toxic stress is important for brain development (which means healthier communities for all of us now and into the future).   

​

This will make our laws fair for children - did you know that children are the only people who are not legally protected from being hit in Australia!  

​

​Updating our laws will bring Australia in line with other countries. As of April 2025, 68 countries have already done this ... and they are seeing benefits for everyone. 

​

​This will bring our laws in line with the attitudes of younger generations. Only 14.8% of 16-24- year-olds believe that corporal punishment is necessary. 

​

​This will bring our laws in line with existing legislation that already bans all forms of corporal punishment of children in most education settings and institutions. 

​

​Providing parents with healthier ways to parent, is good for parent stress levels and health.  

​

​We owe it to all Australians to send a clear message that violence is never ok. This will have positive flow on effects for other social challenges such as domestic violence. We know that condoning violence is a driver of domestic and family violence.  

​

 We owe it to parents to provide consistent messages about how best to navigate parenting. By bringing our laws in line with the evidence, we can open up pathways to better support parents.  

​

Children need to feel loved and valued. Unfortunately we haven’t always given families the best advice about how to do this. We are working together to make sure we are supporting parents with more up to date advice.  

​

​When we build a shared understanding of child brain development - with decision makers, educators, community members, families and experts - we can we can build healthier brains and bodies, and improve learning, wellbeing and resilience for every child, in every community. 

​

​Australia leads the world in child-related population studies including the Australian Child Maltreatment Study and the  Australian Early Development Census, so it doesn't make sense for us to fall behind on our responses to legislative change.