Child Safety Officers in Hobart and Launceston will today walk off the job in hopes of forcing the Rockliff government to address chronic staff recruitment and retention issues that leave at-risk children without support.
Union delegates met with the Premier in September 2022 to discuss an Emergency Workforce Package that would address their staffing crisis and although the Premier promised to respond to the package, he has implemented nothing despite exhausted Child Safety Officers continuously resigning from the service in frustration.
“At the very time Tasmanians are hearing from the Commission of Inquiry about how we have failed vulnerable children in the past, it is happening again,” said HACSU Assistant State Secretary Lucas Digney.
“Child Safety workers need pay and conditions that see people wanting to stay and work in this vital service area. But what do we see? Piecemeal offerings that will do nothing to address the ongoing crisis.”
Child Safety workers will walk off the job not out of self-interest, but because they are being forced to make decisions each day about which child in need gets help and which one must wait.
“Critical services are currently in crisis and these vital workers are struggling with crippling demand,” said Lucas Digney. “It’s gotten worse, not better, and government or departmental representatives have given us nothing as to how the immediate service delivery crisis across the state will be addressed.”
“Child Safety and the Advice and Referral Line are critically under-resourced and children reported at risk of neglect or abuse are not getting the support they need and deserve. We have hundreds of kids in care who do not have an allocated worker. It’s simply not good enough.”
The service continues to decline with more staff leaving; every day without action is another day closer to a collapse of the service altogether.
The stop work events will take place simultaneously in Hobart (outside Kickstart Arts at St Johns Park) and Launceston (at Royal Park) at 12.30pm today.
HACSU State Secretary Robbie Moore and Child Safety workers will be available for comment from 12.30pm onwards today Wednesday 6 September at Royal Park (Park Street, Launceston).