Pages tagged "Public Service"

  • WA is not protecting our most vulnerable children

    Pauline Hanson's One Nation WA is calling for significant reform of the Department of Child Protection in light of recent strikes by child protection workers who are fed up with unconscionable workloads.

    Media reports have exposed the fact that caseloads are completely unrealistic, and there is such as shortage of staff, that the result is that over 1000 cases are not being investigated in a timely manner, and children are being potentially exposed to harm.

    One Nation believes that looking after children is a fundamental priority for any civilised society, and the fact that the WA Labor government does not seem to share this value is deeply disturbing.

    There are many reasons for the current crisis, and to be fair, the policy decisions and mismanagement of the public sector by both major parties over decades is to blame. We have whittled down the public service by endless efficiency drives, often performed by consultants, with little regard paid to actual outcomes for the community.

    One Nation WA Leader Rod Caddies, who worked in Child Protection for 15 years, confirmed understaffing and unmanageable caseloads have been happening since before 2001, and that the result of this is that children are not being given the care and attention they need, which results in terrible outcomes for the community as a whole.

    Mr Caddies said "If children are not given the care they need, if they are not safe, they will have ongoing developmental issues, and behaviour problems, which often result in crime and violence in our community".

    A big part of why this ongoing problem has intensified is because WA Labor amalgamated the department of Housing and Department Child Protection into a bureaucratic monolith called the Department of Community Services, that is incapable of supplying adequate levels of housing or child protection. 

    One Nation WA believes in attracting more quality people to work as case workers who can spend more time finding the best outcome for each child in this state that requires such help. We will make the Department of Child Protection a stand-alone agency again and significantly reduce pointless reporting and middle management functions, and severely limit the use of consultants.

    It is the sad reality that the major parties have created a situation where we cannot care for vulnerable children, but it is not something we should accept as the new normal. One Nation WA is the only party that has a common sense approach based on conservative principles that can fix our broken child protection system.

  • Public Sector Reform

    Serve The People

    We believe that the public sector has lost its way, due to the destructive actions of successive Governments over decades. The public sector has become obsessed with bureaucracy and limiting its exposure to any liability, with consultants gladly exploiting taxpayer dollars to close the gap. The result is a disillusioned public sector where frontline workers find it ever harder to do their actual jobs serving the community.

    One Nation WA will support any measures which help our public sector return to its core function, that is to serve the public, and not themselves. We believe huge gains can be made by reducing bureaucracy, cutting unnecessary functions and changing culture within the public sector to place a focus on service, rather than internal risk management and the need for middle management to stay relevant by making constant unnecessary changes.