WA Cabinet Passes Buck as Indigenous Children Suffer

Aboriginal children in Western Australia are in care at about 19 times the rate of non-Aboriginal children, while Elders say government ministers are going “around in circles” over child protection. Nymal elder Linda Doogiebee said: “We're going around in circles, and the impact here is about our Aboriginal children and the families.”

Kariyarra elder Patricia Mason described the cabinet's division of responsibility this way: “It's a game they're playing around each other in cabinet that it's not my responsibility, it's yours.” She said passing responsibility between portfolios “doesn't hold any weight for us as human beings.” The people living with the consequences are Aboriginal children and families; the ministers responsible for the machinery keep pointing across the cabinet table.

Responsibility, passed around

Child Protection Minister Jessica Stojkovski appointed the state's most senior caseworker to oversee investigations in Hedland and flew in more staff after media coverage highlighted child-protection failures, particularly affecting Indigenous children around Port Hedland. The ABC report said there had been little clear ownership of the underlying problems.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Don Punch said he was working on challenges behind the scenes, but that they were not ultimately his problem to solve. “Aboriginal affairs is about managing a land estate, it's about negotiating compensation on native title, it's about heritage protection,” he told ABC South West. “The issues of welfare of Aboriginal people are a collective responsibility for the cabinet.” Punch said his portfolio “does not have a direct responsibility for housing or health or child protection.”

Yet the report described housing stress, homelessness, health problems such as addiction, school non-attendance, and family and domestic violence as issues that can overlap with child protection. Those problems are particularly acute for First Nations Western Australians. The government's website describes the Aboriginal affairs portfolio as responsible for “managing and supporting Aboriginal welfare, heritage and culture.” The words on the website sit awkwardly beside Punch's account of what his office doesn't control.

Families wait while officials explain

Doogiebee said the situation raised concern about the future of young children in foster care and their parents. The report's figures show the scale of the disparity, while the government's annual Closing the Gap progress report showed no change for Western Australia in child protection and a decline in child development.

Punch's speech on that report focused on positive measures, including new partnership agreements and an emergency ambulance services trial. The report cited few tangible examples from Punch of helping resolve the child-protection problem. He told parliament he was regularly invited to meet traditional owners on country, hear concerns, and discuss issues affecting communities, including delivery of essential government services. He also said he worked closely with ministerial colleagues whose portfolios directly affect Aboriginal communities, including the child protection minister.

A visit without a date

Punch agreed to visit the area after opposition criticism, but no date had been set. Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas said: “What I went up there and saw was a community crying out for help, crying out for leadership.” He said the premier had left the community in the lurch and arrived late, and that the Aboriginal affairs minister had not appeared. “He should be ashamed. He should quit,” Zempilas said.

Premier Roger Cook was asked about plans when he visited Hedland the previous month. “We have teams working here, day in, day out, to keep the community safe and to work with them,” he said. Cook said local member Kevin Michel worked with community leaders on how to configure and resource services. He added that there were always challenges and that the state government's role was to work with communities to address them. The official answer is teamwork and shared cabinet responsibility. The Elders' account is of families still caught in the circle.