This paper describes the collaboration between an Aboriginal community and Western Australia's (WA) Department for Child Protection (DCP) in designing and operating a residential child care facility in a predominantly Aboriginal community. Research literature has established that the effective operation of child protection systems in remote Aboriginal communities requires practitioners and policy-makers to have awareness of local and extra-local cultural, historical and contemporary social factors in nurturing children. This ethnographic case study describes how a newspaper campaign heightened public and professional awareness of child abuse in the town of Halls Creek, in WA's Kimberley region. With its largely Aboriginal population, Halls Creek lacked the infrastructure to accommodate an inflow of regional people. Homelessness, neglect and poverty were widespread. Within a broader government and local response, DCP joined with community leaders to plan out of home care for children. Detailed are the importance and complexities of negotiating between universal standardised models of care and local input. Strategies for building positive relationships with children's family while strengthening both parenting capacity and community acceptance, and use of the facility are identified. Key to success was the development of a collaborative 'third-space' for threading together local and professional child protection knowledge.

On 12 November 2012 the then Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced she was recommending to the Governor General the establishment of a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Following inquiries in Australia and elsewhere much is already known about institutional and inter-institutional child protection failures and what is required to address them. That Australia's national government has pursued another abuse inquiry with terms of reference limited to institution-based (excluding the family) sexual abuse is of interest given the lack of political will to enact previous findings and recommendations. This article examines the background to the Government's announcement, the Commission's terms of reference and some of its settings, and literature on the nature of royal commissions across time and place. After the lack of success in implementing the recommendations of previous inquiries into how to better protect Australia's children, the question is: how will this Royal Commission contribute to Australian child protection and safety? Will the overwhelming public support generated by "truth speaking to power" in calling for this inquiry translate into action?

Background: People who have profound intellectual and multiple disabilities face significant challenges to participating in their community and are reported to have few friends. In this paper, the issue of how this is addressed by parent-carers of young women with Rett syndrome is explored. Method: Transcripts of in-depth interviews with 6 families registered with the population-based Australian Rett Syndrome Database were examined, guided by a theory of social construction, for themes of participation. Results: The majority of parent-carers saw social participation as an unrealistic expectation due to their daughters' difficulties with communication. At the same time, parent-carers spontaneously recounted details of their daughters' social connections within their local communities. This was positively associated with the presence of siblings. Conclusions: Young women with Rett syndrome participate socially in their community. Encouraging parent-carers to continue with small-scale strategies that pay heed to their concerns and fears has the potential to enhance their daughters' access to the benefits associated with friendship.