The Productivity Commission has recently discovered up to 50,000 children were either subject to or at risk of abuse and neglect in Australia last year.
The findings, which are equivalent to nine in every 1000 Australian children, have become part of a wider investigation into how effectively and efficiently such cases are handled.
The Commission found more than 54,000 children were under protection orders and one in five of these investigations took longer than 90 days to complete.