CANARVON VIOLENCE NEEDS LOCAL SOLUTIONS: GREENS SENATOR

Senator Dorinda Cox. Image: Dorinda Cox Facebook page.

Greens Senator Dorinda Cox has said local solutions are needed to deal with the violence occurring in Canarvon and other communities in regional WA.

On 11 March, a large street brawl erupted in Carnarvon involving over 100 people.

Police said the alcohol-related fight took place in response to an earlier incident, according to the West Australian.

Noongar-Yamatji woman and former police officer Senator Cox said social issues like those seen in Carnarvon were a result of trauma. 

“These are all symptomatic or a byproduct of trauma that is now being played out through the last generation of children, and we have to understand that policing our way out of this is just going to increase the incarceration rate of young people,” she said.

“We should be looking at raising the age of criminal responsibility, but also we should be looking at local-based solutions.”

Senator Cox said government responses should be planned in consultation and partnership with the community.

“We cannot continue to think that the heavy hand of the law is the only way to solve these problems because it is not,” she said.