The case of the missing toddler shocked and saddened the whole community and thousands of people who never knew William or his family have shared in the pain of not knowing what happened to him.

Police investigating the disappearance have used the second anniversary to announce a beefed-up reward for information with $1 million to be made available to anyone coming forward with crucial information.

That's a big carrot to hang in front of anyone who may have been reluctant to come forward earlier and it reflects the broad public concern with this case.

And few would begrudge the government handing over such a sum if this case could finally be resolved.

And so we ask again: What's the difference between this case and the disappearance of Bathurst teenager Jessica Small way back in 1997?

It took more than a decade for the case to come before a coroner and, even then, the government seemed reluctant to throw the same sort of resources at it as we’ve seen in the William Tyrrell case and others.

At the end of the inquest, State Coroner Sharon Freund recommended the government offer a reward of no less than half a million dollars for information relating to Jessica’s disappearance.

When the reward was finally offered, though, it was just 20 per cent of that figure.

And even when Jessica's mother made a special plea earlier this year for the reward figure to be raised, the government continued to sit idle. Yet no one can explain why.

Most rewards go uncollected so the headline figures mean little in a practical sense. But if, by some miracle, an increased reward did bring results, then we would all be much better off.

Even the $1 million offered in the Tyrrell case would be just a fraction of the money spent investigating Jessica Small’s disappearance so far.

And surely the possibility of finally offering Jessica’s family real answers - no matter how slim that likelihood - is worth opening the public purse.

That the government could value the life of one missing child as worth 10 times the life of another is as inexplicable as it is insulting. But the handling of Jessica’s case has been an insult from the start.