JUSTICE PLAN LAUNCH FAILS TO IMPRESS

The group Social Reinvestment WA launched an alternative youth justice strategy in Perth last week.

GEOFF VIVIAN

A Mulgana man said he was less than impressed with the launch of a plan to address the issues of children in the criminal justice system.

“I find it quite patronising to sit in a meeting of that nature,” he said. “People with all these ‘highly qualified’ acronyms behind their names, and they’re sitting down making ‘Aboriginal calls’ on issues. I could see during the duration of that meeting they had no understanding of the severity of what was going on.”

Rex Belotti

Rex Belotti, who is a member of the  First Nations Deaths in Custody Board, said more than 100 people were invited to the “Blueprint for a Better Future, Paving the Way for Youth Justice Reform” launch in Perth.

“There needs to be a holistic approach from all the (tribal) areas, that we can all sit down and nut this out,” he said. “We need to have delegations from all the areas of WA to be there. Not a group of people who do not interact with none of the other people here in Perth. There’s a clique that is happening here. Those people are not sharing the information outside of their collective.”

He was referring to the group “Social Reinvestment WA” which Ngaarda Media has contacted for comment. 

They say they prepared the document after more than two year’s consultation.

They describe themselves as an Aboriginal-led state-wide coalition of nearly 30 not-for-profits working together to end the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Western Australia's justice system.