There are fears a nine-year-old Sydney girl has been taken out of Australia to be married overseas.
Federal Justice Minister Michael Keenan say he is investigating reports the girl will be married in the Middle East.
"We're very keen to ... make sure that if somebody is to come across this type of crime that they know how to go about helping that person to report it to authorities so we can do something about it," he told the ABC.
Minister for Women Pru Goward said parents needed to know it was illegal to take their child overseas for a forced marriage.
"Certainly the person who `married' the girl can be prosecuted and it is just an unacceptable part of life in Australia," she told Macquarie Radio on Tuesday.
The Immigrant Women's Health Service in western Sydney was tipped-off about the case.
The service has spoken to the girl's mother but was unable to get specific information, the ABC reported on Tuesday.
It comes as the federal government launches an awareness campaign to encourage young women to report child marriages.
"We're making sure that we have materials out there to educate the community about what to look for and so these crimes can be reported and then the appropriate authorities can go and prosecute them," Mr Keenan said.
But the director of the service, Dr Eman Sharobeem, said brochures would have little effect.
"Forced marriage and child brides happen among the culturally and linguistically diverse communities, those communities will not go to the website and will not share glossy papers to see what's written about legislation in the country," she said.
Federal Labor's deputy leader Tanya Plibersek said Australians would be "absolutely appalled" if the reports were true and they would expect the full force of the law to be applied.
"There is no excuse, no explanation that is acceptable," she told reporters in Canberra.
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