I was very angry to read at todays NT News the government reaction to the child protection (or lack of) situation today. It is a tragedy cries Minister Elferink. I peg your pardon John, it is a tragedy you have created yourself and your government. You cut $8 m form the Departments budget, you have nt recruited anyone to fill the vacancies, you de-funded the Aboriginal body we put in place to assist with indigenous child protection, the department is not investigating or substantiating all cases and so on. I remember when your self and the current CEO of the Department the then Member for Araluen Jodeen Carney were jumping up and down about the failure as you called it, of the then Labor government (and myself as a Minister of Child Protection ta the time) with child protection, the fact that we were recruiting fully qualified child protection officers from around the world, the number of cases not investigated and so on. Let me remind you that it was our government that put an extra $130 m over 5 years into the department - you took out $8 m we recruited a significant number of child protection officers - you got rid many of them we tried to find solutions by making the department a stand alone department - I wonder how long this will last we established and funded an indigenous peak body for child protection - you put an end on this And you call the situation a tragedy? Yes it is a tragedy but It is one of your own making John.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 07:50:45 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015