MPs urged to act on youth suicide crisis

Indigenous Health Minister Ken Wyatt has called on parliament to turn its attention to the child suicide crisis in the Kimberley.

Indigenous Health Minister Ken Wyatt. Picture: AAP

Indigenous Health Minister Ken Wyatt has called on parliament to turn its attention to the child suicide crisis in the Kimberley this week, as well as dealing with ­Kerryn Phelps’s medivac bill on offshore processing.

Mr Wyatt, the first indigenous Australian appointed to a federal government frontbench, said parliament should deal with both matters at the same time.

In her report last week into the suicides of 13 Aboriginal children and young people aged 10 to 24, West Australian Coroner Ros Fogliani said governments needed to listen to what locals told them about trauma, dysfunction, alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence and sexual abuse in communities across the Kimberley.

The report also revealed a child protection system that left children at risk of harm ­despite big increases in the number of  Aboriginal children being ­removed.

Mr Wyatt said Scott Morrison was affected by the confronting stories in the report. “He just said ‘How the hell did this happen and why can’t we fix it?’ ” he said.

Mr Wyatt said many people seemed to accept indigenous youth suicide as “normal” when it was not. And he was saddened that it had not rated a mention in emails to his electorate office.

“The sad thing in life is that as a federal member, I will receive emails about Nauru, I will receive them about the live sheep trade, I will receive them about animal cruelty,” he told radio 6PR last night.

“I have yet to receive a single email about the suicides in ­Aboriginal communities in WA. And I doubt that my colleagues would have got them as well.”

He said the many programs and government agencies funded in the Kimberley would not solve the tragedy of youth suicide without the involvement of Aboriginal communities themselves.