Public Service Association general secretary Stewart Little speaks as Wollongong child protection caseworkers walk out over a “crisis” in the system.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 We're walking off the job because the child protection system is effectively in collapse.
00:05 That's where we're at.
00:06 We have got vacancies across the state of around 20 to 25 per cent.
00:11 I think the average vacancy rate here at Wollongong now, the official vacancy rate, is around
00:17 10 per cent.
00:18 But we know that on a daily basis it's much higher than that because we've got long-term
00:23 sick leave, we've got workers' compensation.
00:24 What that means in practical terms, and this is the official statistics of the department,
00:33 last year we had over 8,000 children reported to this office that were in risk of real harm.
00:41 Risk of harm.
00:42 We managed to see 2,000 of those children because there are simply not enough caseworkers.
00:48 Job protection in crisis.
00:49 End the crisis now.
00:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]