Squalor reports trigger outback children welfare probe

How social welfare is being rolled out to vulnerable families living in the nation’s economic engine room will be put under the microscope.

The national Indigenous children’s commissioner-led review comes after a dozen children were reportedly found living unsupervised in squalor in Western Australia’s iron-ore-rich Pilbara region.

“Children and families should not have to reach crisis point before governments meet their responsibilities,” National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People Sue-Anne Hunter said on Friday.

The independent and targeted probe will examine whether Indigenous children and families receive timely, coordinated support.

Child protection, health, education, housing, police, and the justice system will also be examined to ensure they meet their responsibilities to uphold children’s rights.

It will also look at how agencies respond to children and families, whether they work together effectively, and what actions would improve those responses.

Reports first appearing in The Australian newspaper described more than a dozen children living unsupervised in squalor in a South Hedland home, about 1600km north of Perth.

It triggered a political storm that led to the family being removed and Child Protection Minister Jessica Stojkovski and the commissioner being deployed to the town of about 11,000.

WA Premier Roger Cook welcomed the review and said the minister returned to South Hedland on Thursday to talk with stakeholders and local families.

“My priority at the moment is to ensure that people feel heard, to feel that the government is listening, and to make sure that they can talk to the government about the issues that concern them,” he said.

“This is a complex situation in difficult circumstances with communities facing deep disadvantage, and my government is working hard tirelessly every day to make sure that we get good outcomes.”

Hunter said that while the review’s focus was the Pilbara, it would also address nationally significant questions.

“How government agencies turn their separate responsibilities into a coordinated response for children and families,” she said.

“Understanding what enables that, and what gets in the way, can inform change elsewhere.”

The commissioner said community members would also be interviewed about their experiences “to understand the failings, what changes are needed, and importantly, what is working and needs to be continued”.

The WA child protection department has been accused of previously failing to act in the case of an Indigenous mother convicted of murdering her three young children in Port Hedland in 2022.

Vocal advocates have renewed calls for an inquest into the deaths amid claims of fresh evidence and a cover-up of the circumstances surrounding the murders.

Aboriginal Elders have called for a Royal Commission into WA’s child protection agency and for Stojkovski to resign.

She has not done so and said she would listen to the community.

The WA government previously announced a suite of measures to support vulnerable and at-risk children in the Port Hedland area.

These include bolstering child protection staff in the town and creating a local co-ordination group to help government services, such as child protection, police, housing and youth justice, work together more effectively.