Labour leader Iain Gray argued for faster and more frequent intervention in Scotland to remove children "at risk" from their parents.
Mr Gray made the demand after the identity of the couple responsible for the death of 17-month-old Peter Connelly was publicised.
Tracey Connelly and her lover Steven Barker, responsible for the death of Peter, were identified when a court anonymity order expired today.
The child died in August 2007 in his blood-spattered room in Haringey, north London.
Mr Gray said: "We have had similar cases in Scotland and it is clear we are not doing enough.
"The SNP government must do more.
"I have been urging them to take action for months and it is clear we need stronger legislation to act."
He urged First Minister Alex Salmond to back a call for a national inquiry to devise a new child protection system in Scotland, saying: "We have to challenge the presumption that the best place for a child is always with their family."
Mr Gray went on: "The conventional view is that children should only be taken away in the most extreme of circumstances. This is wrong.
"The First Minister persists in defending the system but what Alex Salmond fails to appreciate is that there is a moral issue over whether or not, as a society, we stand back and leave children with parents whose addiction puts their quality of life at risk.
"Each time there is a tragedy, such as Peter Connelly or Brandon Muir in Dundee, it is treated like a one-off case - but this is a national problem."
"There are 20,000 children at risk across Scotland because of their parents' addiction either to drugs or alcohol.
"Overstretched social workers are doing their best but something has to change."
He cited a series of "damning" reports on child protection in Dundee, Moray, Aberdeen and Midlothian in the last year.
"We know that 10 to 20,000 children live with drug-addicted parents.
"Many more - perhaps up to 100,000 - live with parents addicted to alcohol. We have heard these same figures from the Scottish Government for two years now.
"I have been saying for months now that we don't need to count them. We need to find them so we can protect them."
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