More time, more culture: Aboriginal leaders respond to Premier’s youth incarceration prevention promise

Kimberley Aboriginal leaders say Indigenous leadership and long-term investment is integral to the success of youth crime prevention initiatives promised by the Premier as part of the upcoming State Budget. In response to community concern over crime rates in the Kimberley, Premier Mark McGowan announced “a range of initiatives . . . designed to try and break the cycle” to be included in the Budget. This includes the expansion of the Target 120 Initiative, already in practice in Kununurra, and opportunities for on-country sentencing in a bid to avoid the removal of children to Banksia Hill. However, Waringarri Corporation chief executive and Miriuwong man Des Hill claims the solution is more complex, and leadership and defunding have been issues with preventative programs in the past. “You need that cultural component in any program where you deal with any children, especially Indigenous,” he said. “The only thing is that no one in parliament sees fit to provide that continuous funding.” Mr Hill said programs generally run for two or three years, and ensuring Target 120 Initiative is one of the outliers is vital. “It will never, never work if it keeps getting dictated to by the Government,” he said. He said the Government needs to focus on “making those programs more sustainable and putting them in place for at least five to 10 years”. In 2017, the McGowan Government invested $22 million into the Target 120 Initiative, to be rolled out over four years. The initiative brings across-government resources together to support families of the 120 worst juvenile offenders in the State, providing job recruitment, education assistance and counselling. In 2021, the running of Target 120 in Kununurra was handed to an Aboriginal-owned body, MG Corporation. MG Corporation’s partnership co-ordinator Jeremy Donovan views Aboriginal leadership the core solution to this issue. “I think that anytime Aboriginal people are at the frontline of delivering service to Aboriginal people, we’re always going to get better results, because we understand the families,” he said. “Our cultural capabilities are so much great that the disconnected seats that sits within government agencies.” Mr Donovan said when the corporation took over leadership for the program, reoffending rates dropped to just 31 per cent. “The solution is there. The solution is local,” Mr Hill said. One of the programs overseen by Mr Hill is Waringarri’s Strong Men’s program which helped deliver fishing and camping adventures with local Elders in exchange for attendance in school. “We said, ‘OK, we’ll make a deal with you. We’ll take you fishing on Friday afternoon, camp out and come back on Sundays with the elders on the condition you go to school at least four days a week’.” “It was just a verbal agreement -— they loved their fishing, so we said, ‘we’ll do this for you, if you do this for us.” “Eleven of the 17 (participants) were going back to school.” In light of the program’s success, Mr Hill approached the State Government for funding so it could be continued and expanded, but was declined. The program is currently being run on a smaller scale, funded by the Corporations own profits from its cattle station and small funds passed to them through the National Indigenous Australians Agency and Department of Social Services. Mr Hill says the main problem they face in running these programs that are offered by the Government, is they are rarely funded long enough to make a real difference. “If you look at the ridiculous amount of money is costs to have someone incarcerated per day — it’s a lot of money,” he said. “Even a bit of that fund each year, to run the program would make a difference.” “If you look at any justice reinvestment program, putting dollars into prevention saves a lot of dollars on reaction down the track.” “A lot of our programs are about trying to stop them even getting into the justice system and getting sent away to Banskia,” he said. “But they will never, never work if they keep getting dictated by the government.” When asked whether he knew of children who had made it successfully through these programs, Mr Hill said he didn’t know of any. “We haven’t had programs run long enough to give you an accurate response.” Minister for Community Services Simone McGurk said more information will be revealed regarding the expansion of Target 120. “Target 120 will be rolled out to additional sites across the Kimberley, with details to be announced soon.” The 2022/23 State Budget is expected to be released next month.