PILBARA COMMUNITY ORGS SEEK MEETING WITH PM ON YOUTH JUSTICE
BY GERARD MAZZA.
LEFT: Melissa Price MP (Credit: Melissa Price MP), CENTRE: Pilbara Aboriginal Health Alliance CEO and P4P board member Chris Pickett (Credit: Pilbara Aboriginal Health Alliance), RIGHT: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (Credit: Australian Government.)
Community organisations from the Pilbara have requested a meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss youth justice issues and crime in regional Western Australia.
Member for Durack Melissa Price wrote to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week to request he meet with Pilbara for Purpose (P4P), a coalition of community organisations, when he and his Cabinet visit Port Hedland later this month.
Members of P4P include Pilbara Aboriginal Health Alliance, Youth Involvement Council, Salvation Army, Yinhawangka Aboriginal Corporation, Puntukurnu Aboriginal Medical Service, and Robe River Kuruma Aboriginal Corporation.
The Prime Minister has recently announced $250 million in funding to be invested in the Northern Territory in initiatives like youth diversion projects, on-country learning and domestic violence services.
Ms Price said areas of WA including the Kimberley, Pilbara and town of Carnarvon deserve similar funding.
“My question to our PM is whether he will be providing this same level of funding to the equally vulnerable communities in Western Australia?” she said.
“We have all spent years focused on closing the gap. Please don’t create a new gap between Western Australian and Northern Territory communities.”
Pilbara Aboriginal Health Alliance CEO and P4P board member Chris Pickett said he wished to speak to the Prime Minister about raising the age of criminal responsibility and keeping kids out of detention.
‘‘We need to look at much more investment in diversionary programs that can keep these kids from that cycle of offending and reoffending, ’’ he said.
‘‘The stats are telling us that’s exactly what happens. You put somebody in that sort of position and they don’t come out of it well generally.’’
The Prime Minister has rejected claims his government has left Western Australia behind.
“The Prime Minister travels throughout Australia extensively, including to Broome and Fitzroy Crossing last month,” a spokesperson said.
“He has also visited Perth and Albany, and has plans to bring the Federal Cabinet to Port Hedland in a fortnight’s time.”
They said the Albanese government has provided record levels of funding for Closing the Gap and initiatives to improve the lives of First Nations people, including in WA.
“The Prime Minister and his Cabinet will meet with a number of community representatives when he is in Port Hedland,” a spokesperson said, without confirming whether or not Mr Albanese will meet with P4P.
“It’s a bit rich for Ms Price to complain about the Albanese Labor Government getting on with the job of putting local communities first, when she was part of a Liberal National Government that neglected the regions for almost a decade,” the spokesperson said.