Child Protection

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:57): My question is again to the Minister for Child Protection. Is there a shortfall in staff in the Department for Child Protection? If so, when will these positions be filled? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr TEAGUE: In a recent appearance before the Budget and Finance Committee, the Department for Child Protection revealed that there is a shortage of 149 full-time equivalent staff statewide. The 2024-25 budget showed a nearly $70 million budget blowout followed by a $130 million budget blowout in the 2024-25 mid-year review. The Treasurer and the Premier, as well as the minister, explained that this was caused by the recruitment of more staff. However, as the committee has heard, there is a present shortfall of nearly 150 staff in the department.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence) (14:57): I am very pleased to receive this question from the deputy leader. I am certainly very aware of what my chief executive spoke about with the Budget and Finance Committee. I say thank you to her for her leadership and to all workers in the Department for Child Protection and across the child protection and family support system who work tirelessly every single day toward the safety and the wellbeing of children and young people—strengthening families and walking alongside them when they are facing some really difficult issues.

What I can tell the house, and I am sure the deputy leader will be very pleased to hear this, is that through our investment of over $580 million since coming into government we have significantly increased the levels of staffing. At March 2022, the department had a budgeted FTE of 2,341. In February 2025 we had a budgeted FTE of 2,580. So, as you can hear, we are significantly improving the budgeted staffing numbers. In terms of actual net increase in terms of FTEs, we are just around that 200 mark. I am very pleased, also, that we are very close to having a record number of youth workers recruited.

We know that there is more work to do because, as the Premier said earlier, this is really, really difficult, heartbreaking work; it is the hardest work. It is heartbreaking, it is emotionally tough for those workers in the system, but finally we are growing the numbers of staff working at the Department for Child Protection. Can I take this opportunity to say thank you so much to every single one of them. Their work is extraordinary, their dedication is extraordinary.

I spoke before about a staff member I had spoken to who had been in the department for 40 years, and just a few days ago I actually signed a letter to a particular staff member, Ms Veide, who has been there for more than 40 years—I think it was around 43 years; I will double-check that—and who has worked all over the state in child protection and family support. The reason that she and other workers in the system do the work they do is because of the deep commitment that they have to improving the lives of children and young people. They are the ones who are there and see what particular children and young people and their families go through. They are the ones who help children and young people to know that at the most difficult moments they are not alone, that they have someone who will walk alongside them.

I pay tribute to those workers, to their selfless dedication and their incredible ongoing commitment. As I said, I have spoken about two workers today who have been there for four decades and they absolutely know what is needed in terms of the reforms that we are undertaking in the system, and I am really glad to have heard from them in this journey of reform that we are undertaking also.