Dunne must apologise to care and protection staff

Opposition MLA Vicki Dunne today attacked frontline care protection workers, the latest in a series of cheap shots by the Liberals on the professional integrity of public servants.

ACT Minister for Community Services Joy Burch called on Mrs Dunne to apologise to the care and protection workers whom she slandered today in a cowardly attack that she then tried to deny.

Mrs Dunne today described the Government's response to the Public Advocate's report as:

"This is not a Government response, this is a cover-up of unconscionable behaviour by care and protection officers."

• - Vicki Dunne, press conference, 21 November 2011

Mrs Dunne then tried to deny she had made this accusation when pulled up by a journalist.

Ms Burch said this was the latest in a series of attacks on frontline care and protection staff who worked in challenging circumstances to protect vulnerable children.

"I have met with the frontline workers and they have shared their distress at the unfair criticism Mrs Dunne has levelled at them in recent weeks, particularly because they do not have an opportunity to publicly defend themselves," Ms Burch said.

Last month in the Legislative Assembly, Mrs Dunne accused care and protection staff of wilfully breaking the law.

"We are talking about an agency that does not show care for the people that it is charged with responsibility for. So little care does it show that it breached the law, through either ignorance or wilfulness."

• - Vicki Dunne, Legislative Assembly, 18 October 2011