Interest groups taking human rights complaints overseas had contributed to a government decision to review Australia's relationships with the entire UN committee system, a senior minister said today.

The time-consuming nature of filing four-yearly reports to the UN committees, which seemed more interested in the views of non-government bodies, was also a contributing factor, Family and Community Services Minister Jocelyn Newman said.

Citing claims of cuts to child care funding as an example, Senator Newman told Channel Nine that the UN was only hearing one side of the story.

'Well of course we didn't cut child care and that's an example, if you like, of people here who have got a political agenda here, going to New York,' she said.

She said the government was questioning the UN committee system because of the amount of attention given to people who could not get a sympathetic hearing at home.

"If governments spent all that time on producing the information that's required by the UN, you'd have to ask, how is it that committees seem to take little interest in what is provided ... and listen to submissions from non-government bodies who are going overseas to lobby where they can't perhaps get a hearing in Australia."

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer last week announced the government's review of Australia's relationship with the UN treaty committee system.

The review follows a savaging of the federal government by the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination over indigenous issues including mandatory sentencing.

Newman today confirmed the review would include the committee for the elimination of discrimination against women, which has also criticised Australia.

"The foreign minister said that all our relationships with committees would be reviewed," she said.

"We are not talking about walking away from our treaty obligations. We are talking about how this committee system works.

"Australia had for some time been trying to change the administration of the committees and the way they impacted on the Australian public sector.

"I know it takes a huge amount of time providing those four-yearly reports on the status of women.

"It's not just the Office for the Status of Women that's having to respond. We are responding across all government departments, across all the policies areas that are required by the UN.

"It's important but it's a huge job."

Senator Newman recalled former prime minister Gough Whitlam's abolition of appeals to the British Privy Council as an example of Australia closing off ties with external bodies.

"Surely the UN can do better with the way these things work and Australia has been trying to get that done for some time," she said.

AAP

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