If Frisby Court wasn't squalid, I don't know what is

Last Sunday, over my morning coffee, I thought I would take a moment to check out any breaking news on The Australian online app.  A video I had quickly put together commemorating 25 years since the horrific September 11 attacks on the US and posted on Instagram had gone viral with over a million views, so I hadn’t been paying my usual attention to current affairs

What finally caught my interest though was the heartbreaking story by journalist Ros Thomas on the abandoned kids of Frisby Court, South Hedland.  Even though it first aired on Saturday, I hadn’t seen the issue flash up on social media and couldn’t let it pass without doing what I could to raise awareness further.

The article is a harrowing read, but a real credit to Ros Thomas in how thoroughly and honestly she was prepared to air the terrible situation of the children of Frisby Court.

The contrast couldn’t be more stark with the handling of the matter by the Minister, Jessica Stojkovski, the Department for Child Protection (DCP), and the Cook Labor government. Despite video evidence, photographs, and local accounts of the conditions the children were living in (described as “squalid” by Thomas) the Minister denied the term was appropriate and didn’t seem to think the conditions were that bad.

An interesting view considering that The Australian again reported that “on Monday, at least seven tradesmen, arriving in a fleet of government-contracted cars, descended on the house to paint, patch, refurbish and repair” the house. Earlier images revealed just how bad things were.

I can't tell you whether that clean-up happened before or after the Minister arrived, but the timing is curious. What I can tell you is that she has said she didn't think the conditions were squalid. You only had to look at the footage to know otherwise. A concerned local, who had contacted me as a result of my post, offered to check on the kids and take a look at the house on Sunday night and reported back that the place was plainly unsafe, missing the front door and with people coming and going. Even from the outside it was obvious that the place was by any measure, disgusting.

Disturbingly, DCP appeared unconcerned, despite over 50 police reports and numerous calls and letters from neighbours. The DCP claimed, according to neighbour Alex Taylor, that things were “all good”, and that the “disruptive” behaviour he reported could not be substantiated.

What is truly disturbing about the apparent lack of concern and accountability is that it was only a few years earlier that the same department, responsible for overseeing the welfare of vulnerable indigenous children in Hedland, was involved when the three Hawke children lost their lives at the hands of their own mother. How they could be so indifferent to the dozens upon dozens of reports surrounding the Frisby Court children beggars belief.

As I mentioned in one of my video posts, if I were the Minister, I would be up there in a heartbeat and would have spent some decent time there talking to police and locals and working to get to the bottom of the department’s inaction. While this highlights a single household, it involves around fifteen children living without family supervision and care, and it is not an isolated case.

What the local member for the Pilbara, Kevin Michel, has been up to is anyone’s guess, but he appeared missing in action. He’s a decent enough bloke and we cross paths from time to time at events in Newman and Karratha.  But on this he seems to have gone quiet. I imagine his electorate office inbox would be full on this matter and he would be all over it, passionately going after the Minister and doing everything he can to alleviate this dreadful situation.

Instead, it has fallen to the work of the press, and now us in the Opposition, to force the issue and get the government to move. Kudos to The Australian for that.

As for the local member, it's the Where's Wally version: where is the Member for the Pilbara?

This is deeply troubling, both what is happening to these children, and a government that looks completely paralysed, unable to take hold of it and manage it as it should.

I know I don’t have all the answers, but I suspect the key lies in well-functioning, stable families. I have lived in remote towns and seen the bad as well as the profoundly good for Indigenous families where mum and dad took responsibility for their kids and loved them. Kids deserve good families and safe lives, no matter what, and we shouldn’t accept second best on their behalf because we are too afraid or too overwhelmed to do what is right.

We will keep raising it, and we will keep on top of it.

BREAKING NEWS:

Since writing the above, The Australian has settled the question I could only wonder about: the government-contracted crew went in and cleaned the Frisby Court house before the Minister's visit last Monday. Local elders are livid with one describing it as scrubbing down what should have been treated as a crime scene. If that is how the department responds to scrutiny, it tells you a great deal about why these children were failed for so long.