Derby community leader wants more support for parents of young offenders

The State Government’s $40.4 million juvenile crime package, announced on May 3, has received a mixed response across the Kimberley community, with some claiming the Government is again failing to address the core issue behind youth crime in the region. Susan Murphy is the chief executive officer of Winun Ngari Aboriginal Corporation and feels strongly about the State Government’s decision to throw major funding into the Kimberley Youth and Community Justice Response, claiming they are “just fixing the symptom and not the cause”. The comprehensive cross-agency package will be delivered as part of the 2022-23 State Budget and includes a range of initiatives and programs the McGowan government claims will help break the cycle of reoffending in the Kimberley. Some $15m of this funding has been allocated towards an on-country residential facility for young offenders as an alternative to Banksia Hill Detention Centre. During a visit to Broome last Tuesday, Minister for Regional Development Alannah MacTiernan said the details of the facility are still being considered but could include an Aboriginal-led pastoral program at Myroodah Station, 112km south-east of Derby. While the State Government is presenting the package as a solution to the crime wave currently plaguing the region, Ms Murphy remains unconvinced. “We’re putting these kids into Banksia, and then we’re putting them pack into the same environment,” she said. “We’re not fixing the cause, we’re fixing the symptom.” As understood by Ms Murphy, the cause includes unstable homes, abuse and boredom. “They’re coming from families that are broken. Not all of them, but some of them. And we don’t have any help for those families.” “$40m should be going into things like the families unit.” Part of the Kimberley Youth and Community Response package is allocated to the expansion of Target 120 program, a scheme which has community support workers offering individualised support to young offenders and their families. When asked of her thoughts of the program’s expansion, Ms Murphy was clear. “It didn’t work in Kununurra, so what makes them think its going to work across the Kimberley?” According to the co-ordinator of the initiative in Kununurra, Jeremy Donovan, the reoffending rates of participants in the East Kimberley is only 31 per cent. This is lower that the entire program’s current results which identify half of participants since 2018 having reoffended. Ms Murphy said the solution would be more straight-forward if politicians visited the towns and spoke with community members. “They need to come and sit down, and they need to talk to the community,” she said. “They need to spend a night in the towns and experience what these people are putting up with.” “Where’s the money for the victims of crime? Where the money for all those who can’t afford insurance anymore because of rising premiums?” “There are other solutions. They just need to learn to sit down and talk to the people.”