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.