of child abuse.

And the new bill contains arrangements for the creation of a child abuse register.

The provisions are contained in The Children Act 1998 tabled yesterday in the House of Assembly.

Under the new legislation any person who abuses, mistreats, neglects or abandons a child could be fines as much as $3,000 or imprisoned for a maximum of six-months.

And the Act makes it mandatory for anyone, including professionals, with information that a child is suffering, or has suffered, harm to report the matter to the director of Child and Family Services.

But the new measures do not affect lawyer/client confidentiality.

Those who do report incidents of child abuse will have their identity protected by the Act and will not face civil action unless a false or malicious report was filed.

When the Act becomes law, a Child Abuse Register will be established listing the names of individuals who were convicted of causing physical or serious emotional harm or sexually abusing a child. A person convicted of a criminal offence against a child could also have their name placed on the register.

Anyone placed on the register will receive written notice of their registration and has the right to apply to the court to have their name removed. If the court is satisfied that the individual poses no further risk to children, the court can rule that the name be removed from the register.

All information in the register will be confidential. Throughout 1997 there was a major new push for compulsory reporting of child abuse.

Paediatricians, counsellors, Police and women's support organisations are currently caught in a dilemma in regard to victims of child abuse. Reporting abuse means they breach client confidentiality while keeping silent means the perpetrator may continue the behaviour. Once the Act becomes law, the dilemma will be taken out of their hands.