On Tuesday, The Examiner revealed a three-month-old baby boy under a Child Safety Service open notification died before caseworkers checked his welfare.

Tasmania Police said at this stage there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death. 

Health and Community Services Union assistant state secretary Robbie Moore said the shortage of caseworkers was only one problem. 

“The bigger issue is even when they have put on additional staff, because of the staff turnover rates, positions aren’t being filled quick enough, so it means they’re always working short-staffed,” Mr Moore said. 

“The morale is obviously deeply affected by these situations.”

Liberal MP Elise Archer said the government had injected more funds than ever before in relation to the child protection system and it was undergoing reform. 

“The reform has commenced, it is not something that can change overnight but it is significant reform,” she said.

But Labor MP Josh Willie said it had taken the state government a long time to acknowledge there were not enough workers.

“It has been well documented that the child protection system in Tasmania is beyond a crisis, there has been systemic failure after systemic failure,” he said. 

The state government is investing an additional $24 million over four years to employ up to 25 Child Safety staff. 

Mr Willie said chronic under-resourcing from the Liberals was the reason the child protection system was beyond crisis point. 

“As of today there would be unallocated cases across the state, that means that there are Tasmanian children at risk who don’t have a caseworker available to look out for them,” he said. 

Mr Moore said management disrespected their workforce by ignoring calls for more staff, and incentives were needed to get people to join and stay in the service.