AUSTRALIA needs national child protection standards for organisations that work with children, a leading children's charity says.
Child Wise trainer and counsellor Adrian Campion told a child abuse inquiry there were standards for various areas that work with children but no overarching standards for all organisations from a child safety perspective.
"This is a serious obstacle to creating child safe environments for a child," Mr Campion said on Friday.
"If there are no overarching standards any attempt to build child safe organisations will be piecemeal."
He said organisations that had activities across a range of sectors such as out-of-home care, child care, respite care and disability services may have different standards that cover each area individually, but not for the whole operation.
This left room for standards to vary from sector to sector, he said.
Scott Jacobs, who works in child protection policy for Child Wise, said a consistent approach was important.
"If you look at something like WorkSafe, 20 years ago where there was nothing along those lines there were far higher industrial accidents and a lot more problems at work," Mr Jacobs said.
"Because it's universal when you move from one industry to the next you understand the regulations.
"The ideal is for everyone who works with children in any regard should have an understanding of the standards and expectations no matter at what level you interact with them."
Child Wise has been working to prevent child abuse for 21 years.
It promotes the idea organisational structures can be a powerful tool for the prevention of child abuse.
Mr Campion said rigorous and transparent child protection policies could make organisations unattractive to predators.
"The lack of formal procedures for hiring and screening staff is a structural element that makes organisations more attractive to potential offenders," he told the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations.
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