Unregistered babies risk missing out on care, education

The report published by UNICEF Australia raises concerns about a lack of access to childcare for young people without birth certificates, but says most of the children unregistered live in remote parts of the country where childcare is not accessible.

UNICEF Australia's head of policy and advocacy Katie Maskiell said data for the Certify Hope: Rights from the Start report was pooled from a range of sources that fed into the ABS, but recognised the information could be incomplete. 

It is the first time unregistered births have been measured and analysed nationally.

"We know that these are some of the barriers, the distrust of government services from a stolen generation perspective," Ms Maskiell said. 

"We know that there are barriers for remote communities in terms of accessibility to the internet, lack of services on the ground in those communities in the first place ... we'd heard all of that anecdotally, but the data now kind of confirms those barriers."

Only 22.1 per cent of First Nations births in the most remote areas were registered more than one year after birth, according to the report.

Ms Maskiell said there had been progress across several jurisdictions to improve birth registration, as it was considered essential for a child's ability to thrive.

"So the two big things that come out from community is around cost and this differs in each jurisdiction across Australia, but that the cost of accessing a birth certificate is quite high, so that's that's a really expensive exercise," she said. 

"We also heard accessibility is a bit of an issue."

A birth certificate in Australia can cost up to $70 and Ms Maskiell said that could become expensive when registering multiple generations, or children at once. 

"The report shows affordable birth certificates and better support services for parents who need them can make a difference in setting Australian children up to thrive," she said.