All our children: children's entitlements to health, education and community services /

The children of Australia are divided by the distribution of Income and "wealth, by deep-seated and enduring cultural differences, by geographical distance and regional inequalities. Such differences have produced entrenched inequalities and led to the abrogation of many children's rights to good quality health, education and community services. The factors that divide children are exacerbated by the practices and institutions of government: federalism and its tensions, problems of co-ordination, centralised bureaucracies said to be distant from the people they are supposed to serve, and the lack of representation of the most economically, socially and culturally "oppressed groups. This paper analyses these divisions and identifies the general policies that are needed if all children's rights to good qualify health, education and community services are to be met. In essence, the paper argues for a consolidation and expansion of the services for children provided by government. It shows how 'the public provision of universally available health, education and community services is' necessary to ensure that all children share in the same spectrum of opportunities and that the consequences of economic and geographic inequality are counteracted