Get Involved - Parliament

Child Protection

Published on: March 2026

Record: HANSARD-1323879322-162917

Child Protection

Ms FELICITY WILSON (North Shore) (11:39:17):

My question is directed to the Minister for Families and Communities. According to a whistleblower on 2GB today, caseworkers are targeted for blowing the whistle on concerns in her department. What protections are in place to ensure that staff within her department who report concerns about children in care are not subject to adverse action?

Ms KATE WASHINGTON (Port StephensMinister for Families and Communities, and Minister for Disability Inclusion) (11:39:39):

— I thank the member for her question. I assure members and others present in the gallery that we take every single concern and complaint seriously. If there are genuine issues going on in the department, I want to hear about them. I want to hear about them from our caseworkers. I speak to them regularly, and they are very frank with me about the issues that they hear. There are no repercussions for those frank conversations or for sharing with me issues that they find in the system. If there are concerns and complaints made by the community, foster carers and others, we want to hear them, and we do. We respond where there is a need, particularly when it comes to the safety and wellbeing of children in this State. At this point, the Opposition has raised questions in this area for three days—

Ms Felicity Wilson:

Point of order—

The SPEAKER:

The Minister will resume her seat. I will hear the point of order from the member for North Shore.

Ms Felicity Wilson:

My point of order is taken under Standing Order 129. While I appreciate the Minister's openness, the question was specifically about what protections are in place.

The SPEAKER:

I thank the member for clarifying that. The Minister has the call.

Ms KATE WASHINGTON:

There are the same protections that are available to every single public servant in this State. The public service is something that we value. Members have just heard from the Minister for Industrial Relations about the incredible work she has done to ensure that we lifted the wages cap. When we lifted the wages cap for caseworkers, what happened? The vacancy rate started going down again. It went up and up under the Opposition when it was in government—

The SPEAKER:

I call the member for Goulburn to order for the first time.

Ms KATE WASHINGTON:

When we made our $1.2 billion investment into the child protection system in the last budget we announced it alongside caseworkers, who were relieved. A critical element of that budget was uplifting their wages and improving their conditions through the first ever individual award for child protection caseworkers in this State. It has seen the caseworker vacancy rate turn around—

The SPEAKER:

I call the member for Goulburn to order for the second time. I call the member for Canterbury to order for the second time.

Ms KATE WASHINGTON:

A caseworker present at that announcement said that under the former Government, caseworkers felt like its dirty little secret, because the former Government never spoke about them or talked about the important work they did—

Ms Felicity Wilson:

Point of order—

The SPEAKER:

I call the member for Goulburn to order for the third time. I will hear the point of order from the member for North Shore.

Ms Felicity Wilson:

I am trying to give the Minister some time to explain the protections that she has in place—

The SPEAKER:

The member for North Shore will resume her seat. The Minister could not have been more directly relevant after the member raised the matter the last time. The Minister has the call.

Ms KATE WASHINGTON:

This issue once again highlights how unprepared the Opposition is for government. When members opposite were in government, they destroyed the system. We will do the difficult work of fixing their mess.

The SPEAKER:

I call the member for Parramatta to order for the first time. Members will come to order.