ALBANESE MEETS WITH COMMUNITY LEADERS IN PORT HEDLAND
BY GERARD MAZZA
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other members of government met with Port Hedland community leaders yesterday. (Credit: Anthony Albanese, Twitter.)
Yesterday, the Prime Minister and 18 federal government Ministers visited Port Hedland on Kariyarra country to hold a Cabinet meeting and to speak with local community members.
Before the Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met with local Aboriginal Elders and leaders, who he said brought up a range of issues.
“They raised issues of housing,” the Prime Minister said. “They raised issues of youth having somewhere to go at night. They raised issues of school retention.”
Banjima woman and Port Hedland local Nadia Councillor was with family at a nearby playground when Mr Albanese gave his press conference.
She said she’d like to see the state and federal governments act to reduce youth crime.
“I reckon youth crime rate is pretty bad here at the moment,” she said.
“I think something needs to be done. I think they need more things for the youths in this town.”
Anthony Albanese, Mark McGowan and other state and federal Labor politicians spoke to media in Port Hedland. (Credit: Gerard Mazza.)
Following the Cabinet Meeting, the Prime Minister held a community reception with around 150 different community leaders from the Pilbara.
Pilbara Aboriginal Health Alliance CEO and Pilbara for Purpose board member Chris Pickett attended the reception.
“It was tremendous, amazing that he bought the whole cabinet over,” he said.
Pilbara for Purpose, a coalition of groups including Pilbara Aboriginal Health Alliance, Yinhawangka Aboriginal Corporation and Robe River Kuruma Aboriginal Corporation, was also granted a private meeting with Mr Albanese and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.
“[The conversation] was around lifting the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 years, which we’ve been lobbying for for some time, and reducing youth incarceration rates in the Pilbara by investing in on-country options for diversion,” Mr Pickett said.
While Mr Pickett was pleased with the conversation, he said “the buck really stops with the state government.”
“The Commonwealth can encourage them, and Mark Dreyfus said that it was certainly very high on the list of his priorities in the meetings with with the state’s Attorney-Generals.
“It’s now down to our Attorney-General John Quigley to really recommend the [state] government push through this lifting of the age of criminal responsibility.”
Ngarluma leader and Ngarluma Yindjibarndi Foundation board member Josie Samson also attended the community reception, where she and Kariyarra Traditional Owner Raylene Button had a moment of prayer with the Prime Minister.
“When I saw him, I knew in my heart I had to grab hold of him and talk to him and pray for him,” Ms Samson said.
“When I asked him, ‘do you mind if I pray for you?’, he was delighted.
“We got in and embraced together in a little circle and we prayed and we hugged each other.”
Mr Albanese’s trip came ahead of tonight’s official launch of the ‘Yes’ campaign in favour of an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in the upcoming referendum.
Mr Albanese said the Elders he consulted with in Port Hedland were supportive of the Voice to Parliament and “the constitutional change that will be proposed at the end of the year.”
“We know that when you consult any group of people about matters that affect them you will get better outcomes, and that is what the Voice is,” he said.
Ms Samson said she was pleased Mr Albanese was pursuing constitutional change.
“Even though he’s running Australia, the whole country, [he wants] to have our voices, our recognition, to come into the constitution,” she said.
“I felt so overjoyed by that, because for the last 200 years we haven’t been heard.”