Western Australia’s Police Minister has suggested basketball may help alleviate the chronic Indigenous child protection issues unearthed in the Pilbara region, as the state’s embattled Child Protection Minister disputed whether the filthy home in which up to 15 children were left unsupervised was “squalid”.
As the state’s Aboriginal Affairs Minister declined to weigh in on the devastating accounts of sexual abuse, neglect and murder of Aboriginal children, Police Minister Reece Whitby told parliament that diversionary programs such as community basketball had been shown to improve outcomes for vulnerable children.
The Australian last weekend revealed that up to 15 children as young as five years old had been left unsupervised for prolonged periods at a home in Frisby Court, South Hedland. Multiple neighbours, Indigenous leaders and local police all confirmed that numerous complaints had been made to the Department of Child Protection about the situation at the home, with seemingly little to no action in response.
Mr Whitby told a question time session dominated by discussion of the reports that basketball activities had succeeded in moving children in disadvantaged communities away from danger and into safer places, while the opposition questioned whether such programs were the sort of solution needed to address the immediate issues in South Hedland.
“What we do know is a fact is what children in vulnerable situations get at those places. They get a feed, they get to play basketball, and it means they are not in danger. They are not in the streets for all hours of the night,” Mr Whitby said.
He said the issues in parts of regional WA were troubling and would take a long time to resolve.
“The truth is, these are real, complex and deep social issues. These are issues that have been generational. These are the issues that are connected to dysfunction, disadvantage, the abuse of drugs and alcohol, the abuse in terms of domestic abuse and child sex abuse,” he said.
“We know these are long and complex and very difficult issues and no government apart from this government has done more to deal with these issues,” he said.
Opposition leader Basil Zempilas said Mr Whitby’s advocacy for diversionary programs such as basketball was “putting the cart significantly before the horse” given the enormity of the issues identified at Frisby Court.
“Those sorts of things, respectfully, they are not the issues of today. They may well be issues for down the track, wherever these kids go or where they might stay, having enough for them to do in their community. But that’s not the issue that we’re talking about today,” he said.
“We’re talking about young people, Indigenous people in these communities not far away from the riches of Western Australia at the port that flushes funds into Australians everywhere being just up the road, and yet in that community just down the road from that port, there are vulnerable young Indigenous kids who don’t have adult supervision and are living for long periods of time on their own without the necessary supervision.”
Child Protection Minister Jess Stojkovski, meanwhile, said in an interview with her local newspaper The West Australian that conditions on the street were confronting but that she did not accept the term “squalid”.
Ms Stojkovski, who has refused multiple interview requests from The Australian, said there was “no evidence” of abandoned children at Frisby Court in the South Hedland but stopped short of accusing the neighbours of lying.
“I can’t talk to their experiences,” she said. “I actually asked all of those agencies and sector workers who I spoke to directly, because they’re the ones that engage on the ground. Are they aware of children being unsupervised in that house for days at a time? And they said ‘no’.”
At least six Frisby Court neighbours, including Ian Beagle, Eyke Czirr, Ashley Sampi and Damien Mason, and five Indigenous leaders including Kariyarra elder Pat Mason, Nyamal-wanman woman Linda Doogiebee and Nyamal-Pitjikarli leader Doris Eaton have spoken on the record to The Australian about the situation. Four local police officers also gave off-the-record accounts of what they had seen on the ground.
Indigenous family support worker Khyanne Thomas described how she regularly took food to the children when their parents weren’t there, saying the Department of Communities would not know if there was one child or 20 alone in the house.
Ms Eaton said she had seen first-hand 10 children alone inside the house. The Australian’s reporter Ros Thomas has also visited the house on at least a dozen occasions between June and September and on June 9 personally counted 15 unsupervised children at the property, including eight in the front yard and seven inside. On all but three of the occasions, there were no parents or supervising adults at the house.
Facing more questions in parliament calling for her resignation, Ms Stojkovski said taking children away from their families was a very serious action and a last resort that required a final decision from a magistrate.
“Child safety practitioners do very delicate, hard work to uptake investigations when a child comes to the attention of the Department of Communities. These people should be commended for the work that they do and not prosecuted for decisions that they make using the information they have,” she said.
As the government continued to defend its handling of the situation, the state’s Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Don Punch, also declined to weigh in, with his office directing inquiries about South Hedland to Ms Stojkovski.
The Labor MP whose electorate of Pilbara includes South Hedland, Kevin Michel, said in a statement that he found the recent media reports “concerning”.
“I will continue to be engaged with the relevant ministerial offices to advocate for children and families in the Pilbara,” Mr Michel said.