Protesters march to save child protective service industry in crisis

Dozens of child protective service workers walked off the job and marched through Bunbury on Thursday morning, demanding the State Government urgently stop the system from collapsing. Members of the Community and Public Sector Union/Civil Service Association met in Bunbury and marched through town demanding action on what they say is a quickly deteriorating system. Staff from every South West office were represented in the march, including Bunbury, Busselton, Collie and Manjimup. The protest for the South West region is particularly important, according to CPSU/CSA acting secretary Melanie Bray, as the South West has the second-highest number of unallocated cases in WA. “Why can’t we acknowledge that there’s a crisis? What’s going on?” she said. “We’ve got 115 kids who don’t have a case worker and that’s more than last time, the last reporting period showed 85 children. “There’s not enough resources in the system to support this region.” Ms Bray said the Government needed to take more action than just increase funding. “We want proper resources, not just throwing money on the issue, not just saying ‘oh we’ve increased the workforce by X amount or per cent,’ not just funding different NGO’s and not-for-profits,” she said. “They all have a part to play, but the statutory requirement is child protection workers...workers who on behalf of the government carry out child protection work. “These children need a lot of support and they’re just not getting it because child protection is being resourced the way it needs to be.” Maria Barry spoke on behalf of the union over what challenges she faces in her over 40 years experience in child protective services. “The staffing in Bunbury is in absolute crisis,” she said. “People work in the department and leave within a very short time-frame because the workload, the pressure and the tragedy is just insurmountable.” Ms Barry said she wants more support so the can see the children her colleagues protect live a better life. “I want to know that if a grandmother in Geralton wants to travel down and see her child, there’s a worker there that can support that to happen,” she said. “I want to see those individual children meet their full potential.” Phoebe Matthews works in Busselton and said the conditions are the worst she’s seen in 12 years. She wants more people to speak up and take action. “Get loud,” she said. “We all have an opportunity to report the concerns with children and when you do, you want to know that something’s going to happen as a result of that.”