New South Wales Consolidated Acts New South Wales Consolidated ActsA person who provides residential accommodation for another person who the person has reasonable grounds to suspect:
(a) is a child, and
(b) is living away from home without parental permission,must, as soon as practicable, inform the Director-General of the child’s whereabouts.
Maximum penalty: 200 penalty units.
Note: The police will notify the Director-General of the details of children who have been reported to the police as missing. If the Director-General becomes aware that a child reported as missing is safe, the Director-General is required to advise the police that the child is safe but not of the whereabouts of the child. The purpose of this provision is to avoid wasting resources in having the police search for missing children whose whereabouts are known to the Director-General.
The parents should be informed that the child is safe, but nothing in this section requires any person to reveal the whereabouts of the child to a person other than the Director-General.