Child protection in Australia is reportedly in a state of crisis. The media regularly provides commentary on escalating rates of child abuse, deaths of clients in child protection services and the massive Federal Government intervention into Northern Territory Indigenous communities, all of which point to a child welfare system in crisis. In Victoria, legislative changes to child protection have introduced new procedures for managing the state’s child protection services.  Among its objectives, the legislation seeks to promote stable long-term care for children through timely and more efficient family interventions. This paper places these events in the historical context of recurring shifts in how the problem of child abuse is calculated and acted upon. It draws particular attention to the evolution of new forms of power deployed in relation to children, families and communities, which delimit the scope of law while promoting individual responsibility for the underlying arrangements affecting child maltreatment.