Chronic shortage of staff in NSW welfare agency

From today's Sydney Morning Herald:

Abuse not just black problem, Joel Gibson and Stephanie Peatling, June 28, 2007

INDIGENOUS leaders in western NSW fear that child sexual abuse is being cast as a black-only issue following a local MP's claim that urgent intervention is needed to help children at risk.
The Assistant Environment Minister, John Cobb, whose Parkes electorate takes in much of western NSW, said a "chronic shortage" of Department of Community Services staff meant there was a backlog of child abuse cases in NSW towns such as Dubbo and Brewarrina.
"DoCS officers in far western communities are working flat out and are suffering from high burnout and stress levels," Mr Cobb said. "Couple this with the fact there is simply not enough of them to thoroughly investigate and follow up on all cases reported to them. We are experiencing a crisis."
Safe houses were also needed in many towns so children could escape abusive homes, he said.
But a Dubbo councillor and Aboriginal elder, Rod Towney, said he wanted to see more evidence before supporting draconian measures that could tar all Aboriginal men with the same brush. "I feel uncomfortable with it because these things are happening in the wider community," Mr Towney said. "It does seem to be rife, from what I read, so you just can't target one group of people without looking at the rest of them."
Other sources expressed a desire for another organisation to be created between indigenous people and DoCS, which is widely mistrusted by Aboriginal families.
Additional resources in many towns have not been allocated despite the now two-year-old "Breaking the Silence" report on child abuse in NSW.

Andrew Reiner: Mr Howard and Mr Brough say they are willing to spend whatever it takes to "fix" this problem. Yet not a word has been spoken about the increased funding to DoCS to enable it to do its job by employing more staff, including Aboriginal staff, or to provide them with training. The PM's strategy is not intended to solve this issue at all. It is intended to impress voters. Yet even in this story, which the Herald has had the wisdom to publish, there is not even a hint that the PM should be held to his word and asked to increase funding to the NSW State Government. These issues are simply not being raised. It is, I'm afraid to say, racism and ignorance that enables the media and the public to remain silent on this. The Commonwealth also needs to provide additional funding for police, since that has clearly been identified as an issue both in NSW and other States. The focus on the Northern Territory is misguided and counterproductive.