High-profile profile politicians have called for more community awareness to tackle the issue of child neglect saying neighbours should pay more attention to what's going on in troubled homes around them.

Their comments came as a 35-year-old mother prepared to face an ACT magistrates court over charges she neglected her four children by leaving them home alone and living in squalor.

It was the latest case in a series of allegations of serious child neglect.

Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce urged householders to dob in their neighbours if they thought something was amiss.

"Without being nosy, have a bit of a think about who's over your back fence," he told reporters.

"And if you see kids walking around that obviously are neglected,then you're not being nosy, you're doing your social responsibility, to make the call and say can you just send someone round there to stick their head in the door."

Neglected children should be taken away from their families, because neglect could lead to more serious problems like sexual abuse, Senator Joyce said.

He also called for the problem to be tackled through schools or child care.

Some other countries insisted on child health checks every six months or so, and this was worth looking at, he said.

He blamed the disintegration of the family unit for some cases of child neglect.

"We should have a community, we've got to build up the premise of community," Senator Joyce said.

A job for all

Australian Greens leader Bob Brown says the community had a role to play in tackling child abuse.

"There's a job on all of us there," he told reporters.

If someone thought something was going wrong for a family, neighbours should let the authorities know so early intervention could take place.

He called on federal and state governments to review their processes on child abuse to see if they could be improved.

However, Senator Brown said it was not fair to take children away from their parents if it was not warranted.

Treasurer Wayne Swan said the government had a plan to tackle the issue.

"I think you will find if you talk to families minister Jenny Macklin, she has a very comprehensive agenda in this area," he told reporters.

Neighbourhood role

Liberal senator Eric Abetz agreed neighbours should intervene in cases of suspected child abuse.

"I would have thought the neighbourhood might have a role there as well to inform the authorities," he said.

However, Senator Abetz said he did not blame neighbours for long-running cases of child neglect.

It was disappointing social services had not been able to cope in recent cases, he said.

Queensland Labor MP Brett Raguse said it was important for the states to consider such issues.

"Our new form of cooperative federalism would suggest that the federal government needs to play a bigger role in a whole range of areas," he told reporters.

"This is something we need to consider.

"In something as severe as this it is again incumbent on all of us to consider what we do as a federal government."

Under review

WA Labor MP Sharryn Jackson said child protection arrangements had been under review across the country.

"It is the commonwealth's job to try and work with state ministers and ensure we have an effective system in place which protects our kids," she said.

South Australian Labor MP Amanda Rishworth said the protection of children was of paramount importance to all levels of government.

"Social workers on the ground do a good job and we need to make sure we are all working together to make sure that we protect children in our community," she said.

"We have to be engaging with the state governments about what we can do to actually look after children."

WA Liberal Don Randall said the federal government had a role.

"We have a role because we put a lot of money into family programs and give them to the states to administer," he said.