HUMAN Services Minister Jacquie Petrusma says Labor is using child protection workers to score political points, as the public sector union warns of a resourcing crisis.
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Right to Information documents released on Monday revealed child protection workers were dealing with up to 24 cases at once.
Northern workers were taking on an average of 12.8 cases.
Labor human services spokeswoman Rebecca White said on Tuesday that resourcing within Child Protection Services was a statewide issue that needed answers "immediately".
The government is unveiling a redesigned system within six months.
"That doesn't provide any guarantee the system is going to be improved today," Ms White said.
"The minister must recruit more workers," she said.
Ms Petrusma said workers and children "deserve better than Ms White's attempts at political point scoring".
"Ms White would have us believe that workers with lower than average caseloads, even if they only have one case, are not pulling their weight, which is just not true," Ms Petrusma said
"More complex, more serious cases clearly demand more time.
"We are taking a considered, consultative approach to redesigning the state's child protection system, and we will not be rushed into taking kneejerk action that is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the work," she said.
Community and Public Sector Union secretary Tom Lynch said child protection workers' loads were "incredibly high" and a caseload of 24 was worrying.
"That's a huge amount of children that you're responsible for," Mr Lynch said.
"The documents highlight again that there is a resourcing crisis going on in child protection," he said.