Social workers to strike over Chloe’s legacy
Two unions that disagree with the government shelving a recommended scheme for social workers will strike outside a newly minted minister’s office today. Meanwhile, the SA Liberals have launched a new petition.
About 100 social workers were expected to strike outside Child Protection Minister Alice Rolls’ office at 12:30 pm today, objecting to the government walking back a social work registration scheme.
And the SA Liberals have today launched a petition, calling on the state government to reverse its decision to shelve the scheme.
Health Services Union SA Branch Secretary Billy Elrick said the decision was “handled terribly”.
“Social workers were consulted over four years about how to build this scheme, but they were not consulted before the government decided to axe it,” Elrick said.
The scheme was a Coroner’s recommendation from the 2015 inquest into the death of Chloe Valentine, who died from horrific injuries after repeatedly crashing a motorbike she was forced to ride in January 2012. The inquest found that a university student on placement in 2009 was made the primary worker on Chloe’s case.
Chloe’s grandmother, Belinda Valentine, said it was “outrageous” that a decade on from the damning review, there was no requirement for social workers to be registered.
Minister Rolls announced on June 19 that the government was “not prepared to impose an additional financial burden by way of a new registration fee upon more than 4000 hard-working professionals”.
“The government has spent four years and millions of dollars building this scheme,” Elrick said.
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“For Minister Rolls to walk away from it after just three months in the job shows inexperience, poor judgement and a failure to properly listen to social workers.
“It’s time the government admitted it got this one wrong and reversed the decision.”
The Malinauskas government in 2021 committed $4.7 million to establish the scheme. Rolls was not in government at the time the money was committed, as she was elected for the first time at the March 2026 State Election, immediately entering cabinet as Child Protection and Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Minister.
Today, Rolls said, “In reaching its decision, the government carefully considered both the potential benefits of registration and concerns raised by the sector, including the cost to social workers, existing workforce pressures, and potential impacts on recruitment and retention.
“Views on this issue have differed across the social services sector, with a number of organisations publicly opposing a state-based registration scheme.
“The State Government continues to advocate for a nationally consistent approach to social worker registration.”
Rolls added that she met with the Health Services Union on June 24.
The Health Services Union and Public Sector Association would be joining the strike action today, both groups saying their membership was not consulted about walking back the scheme.
A government spokesperson told InDaily earlier this week that there was “a divergence of views from right across the social services sector”.
Groups including Child and Family Focus SA and Australian Services Union SA & NT branch were supporters of the government’s move to shelve the scheme.
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The Public Sector Association Assistant General Secretary Celia Brougham said cost-of-living concerns about the registration fee were never raised by their membership, which includes more than a thousand social workers.
“From a public sector perspective, I mean, if the government is worried about putting an additional financial impost onto these workers, let’s pay them more,” Brougham said.
“Obviously, there is an additional financial burden that comes with registration, but a lot of people felt really positively about the registration and were very keen.
“Other professional workforces, such as paramedics, teachers, nurses, they all pay their professional registration, so it really wasn’t a big concern for them.”
At the time of announcing the proposed scheme had been discontinued, Rolls said no comparable scheme exists interstate, and introducing a registration fee could “detrimentally impact” recruitment.
“Social workers continue to play a critical role across many sectors in addressing complex social issues, supporting vulnerable populations and driving meaningful change across systems and communities,” Rolls said.
Liberals launch new petition
Meanwhile, the SA Liberals have launched a petition calling on the government to reverse its decision to shelve the social worker registration scheme.
Shadow Minister for Child Protection Laura Henderson said the government had “undone years of hard work”.
“It’s shameful that this Labor government tried to sneak through this announcement on a Friday afternoon without consulting Chloe Valentine’s family,” Henderson said.
Chloe’s grandmother, Belinda, told InDaily she found out the scheme – which the Malinauskas government in 2021 committed $4.7 million to establish – was scrapped through media reporting.
“Stakeholders are telling me they were absolutely blindsided and are baffled as to why they found out via the media,” she said.
“This is a real slap in the face to those who spent years advocating for the important reform, which would have seen South Australia lead the nation in the regulation of social work.”
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