Kununurra community says broken system leading to crime but taking kids away would just make things worse

The State’s independent children’s commissioner has pointed to the recent juvenile crime wave in Kununurra as proof authorities needed better support to intervene to help at-risk kids earlier in life.

It comes after former police comissioner Karl O’Callaghan called for “woke rot” to be abandoned and child offenders to be removed from unsafe homes to keep them off the streets and turning to offences such as car theft and police chases.

WA Commissioner for Children and Young People Jacqueline McGowan-Jones said State agencies needed to work closer together to aid struggling parents of juveniles, rather than blame them.

Ms McGowan-Jones said she had met a 10-year-old in the Kimberley who looked “already lost” and “dead” in the eyes.

She said incidents such as the arrest of a boy of the same age — who was allegedly driving inside a stolen car that was chasing police — was “heartbreaking.”

“When there’s a 10-year-old in the car who’s probably with older siblings and that is the safest place they can be at the time, that is a sad indictment,” she said.

“If mum has a new bub and that bub is getting their health checks . . . if their child goes into kindy and has delays . . . if that child stops going to school when they’re six or seven or eight, let’s intervene.

“Let’s not wait until they’re in a stolen car”.

Ms McGowan-Jones said better funding was needed to allow agencies and departments to provide better support to parents.

“Imagine if, instead of spending $1 million a year to keep a child in custody, we spent it making the family and community safer,” she said.

“We average 80 children a day, that’s $80 million a year that could be far better spent in prevention.”

Ms McGowan-Jones said parents, and children, fear a system that punishes them and called on Police, Department of Communities, and Housing to work better together.

“They’re working in silos. There is a lot of silo behaviour,” Ms McGowan Jones said.

“I don’t know any parents who don’t care, but there are many parents who are fearful of the systems, and that prevents them from engaging.”

Kununurra — which has a population of little over 5000 — has seen dozens of juveniles arrested in the past week alone

It prompted Mr O’Callaghan’s call this week for the WA Government to make the “unpalatable” decision to removed child offenders from homes deemed unsafe.

“We’ve got to get a bit harder to save those kids and the town and the Kimberley,” he told The West on Tuesday.

Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia agreed on Wednesday a tougher approach was needed, but said serious offenders needed to be in detention.

“Those who might have their behaviours changed through intervention or diversion, they’re not the serious offenders that are stealing vehicles and driving them at police,” he said.

“That’s a very small number and we’ve got some excellent responses available for them inside detention, where they should be.”

Local Aboriginal community groups said the crime spree in Kununurra was a result of a broken system, but described calls to remove children as hurtful.

Kununurra Waringarri Aboriginal Corporation chief executive officer Adrian McCann blamed a lack of housing and short-term Government contracts for community programs.

“In the last month, we’ve been discussing how it’s been peaking in terms of crime and young people present on the streets and behaviours in terms of car theft,” he said.

“Definitely street presence has peaked and hasn’t peaked like this for a number of years.”

Advocates have pointed to a lack of services available at night in the town, when the majority of crime is occurring.

A $6 million Night Space program — that targets kids on the streets late at night and into early hours of the morning — is set to be rolled out in Kununurra next year after successful programs in other areas of the Kimberley, such as Broome and Fitzroy Crossing,.