Ms. Moira Rayner

But this would not work, according to children's interests advocate Moira Rayner.

Ms Rayner, who is vice-president of the Meerilinga Young Children's Foundation and was the founding director of the Office of Children's Rights in London, said the museum needed its own identity.

"I just think it will be lost if it is absorbed into the general museum collection," she said.

Ms Rayner said the museum's present location meant it was "nostalgia city" for adults who wanted to reminisce.

But, in a more suitable location, it could thrive by engaging children's interest.

"A proper museum would have a place where you come in and play and actually experience what it's like to be a kid in a different age," she said.

"To me, it would be a place where kids would have the chance to touch things, learn through doing, so it's a living museum."

Ms Rayner said the Meerilinga foundation, which advocates for children's interests and helps parents, had sold its Perth premises last month and was looking for a new home.

She said it was possible that Meerilinga could relocate with the Museum of Childhood.

"Our plans are absolutely flexible at the moment," she said.

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The president of Perth Inner-City Youth Services, Moira Rayner, said the initiative was a government beat-up.

"Idiots will think this is a great idea because it's so simple and there is a perception we are having such trouble with juvenile offenders - this is a huge beat-up," she said.

"Juvenile crime, and the need to detain children, has actually dropped dramatically."

Juvenile offences made up 17.4 per cent of total offences in Western Australia in 1995, but by 2001 they accounted for just 9.6 per cent, according to the Office of Crime Prevention.

Ms Rayner, who was the inaugural director of the Office of Children's Rights Commissioner in London, said there was a core of about 30 serious repeat juvenile offenders in Perth.Those children and their families needed intensive help.

"You would do something about the circumstances that lead them to offend repeatedly," she said.

The president of Perth Inner-City Youth Services, Moira Rayner, said the initiative was a Government beat-up.

"Idiots will think this is a great idea because it's so simple and there is a perception we are having such trouble with juvenile offenders - this is a huge beat-up," she said.

"Juvenile crime, and the need to detain children, has actually dropped dramatically."

Juvenile offences made up 17.4 per cent of total offences in Western Australia in 1995, but by 2001 they accounted for just 9.6 per cent, according to the Office of Crime Prevention.

Ms Rayner, who was the inaugural director of the Office of Children's Rights Commissioner in London, said there was a core of about 30 serious repeat juvenile offenders in Perth.Those children and their families needed intensive help.

"You would do something about the circumstances that lead them to offend repeatedly," she said.

Moira Rayner, Founding Director of the Office of Children's Rights Commissioner for London

A children's commissioner would need to give all children a credible voice so they could each their full potential, according to Moira Rayner, former director of the Office of Children's Rights Commissioner of London.

Ms Rayner, a Perth barrister, said a commissioner needed to remind people to think of children in all decisions that affected them and not just focus on children who were being abused.

The State Government announced last week that it would appoint a children's commissioner.

Ms Rayner said the Government needed to make sure its commission was not just a body to check criminal records of people working with children.
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Ms Rayner said commissioners could actually speak for children who were, for example, in and out of home care, or constantly getting into trouble or not being thought of when the latest development was being planned through a playground.

"It reminds people that children are people and citizens too even if they don't vote," she said.

Ms Rayner said that in her experience she had looked into what concerned children and found that people had not been listening to what children wanted.