Labor scaremongering on departmental staff cuts

Child Protection Minister Robyn McSweeney has responded to statements made by Opposition spokesperson Sue Ellery and the Labor Party today as 'scaremongering' tactics.

Mrs McSweeney said she had never indicated that child protection officers would be cut or numbers slashed, as the Opposition claims.

"Ms Ellery's claim that we are not doing everything we can to protect the State's most vulnerable children is nonsense. There are not going to be 200 child protection workers cut from the department," the Minister said.

"The figures that Ms Ellery is using do not reflect or take into account the 229 new staff, including 81 for mandatory reporting, the department has employed this year.

"The figure of 1,822 as outlined in the 2008-09 Budget Statements is the Department of Treasury and Finance estimate of how many full-time equivalent (FTE) staff will be used over the course of the year, with new staff coming on at different times and others leaving.

"The figure of 2,063 is the current actual number of FTEs provided for the Department of Child Protection. I say again, no child protection workers will be cut from this allocation.

 "I'm getting on with the job of managing increasing community demand for services and making sure they can be met.

"The record of the previous eight years of Labor government in this area was appalling and one of the worst periods of child protection.

"The Opposition spokesperson should show her support rather than employing scaremongering tactics to take our focus off the real issues.

"These figures do not translate to staff cuts as the former minister would be well aware.

"I understand the Department of Treasury and Finance and the Public Service Commission are working together to reflect the department's allocation accurately."