The hidden cancer of Roebourne after child sex abuse
Paul Murray The West Australian
Opinion
Leader of the WA Government in the Upper House, Sue Ellery
Last November, State Opposition child protection spokesman Nick Goiran started asking a simple but sensitive question in the Legislative Council which should be of intense importance to all West Australians.
Goiran was after some assurance from the McGowan Government that none of 184 alleged victims of child sexual abuse in the Pilbara town of Roebourne remained exposed to any of the 36 men who faced more than 300 charges against them.
It is open to conclude that Goiran was trying to test whether or not the Government is paying more than lip service to protecting the children after the WA Police’s Operation Fledermaus, which began in 2016, uncovered the true extent of the Roebourne scandal (5th story on link).
During a week in which Premier Mark McGowan offered an apology to the victims of sex abuse in State institutions, this issue is starkly relevant.
What Goiran has met is repeated obstruction. Every question the Liberal MLC put through the Leader of the Government in the Upper House, Sue Ellery, was blocked.
Roebourne has a diabolical social history since white colonisation. The 1991 royal commission into the death of John Pat in police custody exposed the isolated town’s alcohol and violence problems to the nation for the first time, but brought little change.
The 1993 film, Exile and the Kingdom, explored the damage done to the Yindjibarndi, Ngarluma, Banyjima and Gurrama people. It was an overnight sensation.
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| Nick Goiran |
Since then, native title created winners and losers among the Aboriginal communities who live together, but haven’t evenly shared the wealth. And endless welfare appears to have done little for the entrenched social dysfunction.
In essence, this is the question Goiran has asked in many forms on 12 occasions: “Can the minister confirm that none of the 184 victims is currently residing with a person either charged or convicted with one or more child sex offences?”
This was Ellery’s answer on behalf of Child Protection Minister Simone McGurk on December 5: “Roebourne is a very small community and providing detailed information as asked by the member could result in the identification of children and young people affected.”
It seems obvious to me that if the answer was 'yes' that there would be no issue with identification.
The Roebourne scandal is shaping up as one of the
worst social breakdowns WA has seen.
For obvious reasons, that palpable nonsense didn’t satisfy Goiran, but when he pushed on, he got this “trust us” response from Ellery on March 13 this year:
“The minister is satisfied that the Department of Communities continues to undertake the necessary actions to appropriately protect and support children and families in Roebourne.”
So Goiran, a lawyer by profession, started pursuing whether the minister was doing her job properly.
Throughout April, he tightened the focus to questions about who McGurk was relying on for information about Operation Fledermaus and if she had pursued his questions with her bureaucrats.
Labor’s deflection strategy was to offer Goiran a private briefing, a time-honoured way of shutting down dissent.
He rightly insisted on the Government being held publicly accountable to the people through the Parliament — which is its role.
Roebourne, WA
The farce reached its zenith last week in another of the parliamentary processes that is meant to keep governments accountable: the Budget estimates hearings.
Sitting in front of Goiran was the public servant entrusted with the job of protecting the 184 children, the Director-General of the Department of Communities, Grahame Searle.
Goiran began questioning Ellery about the so-called West Pilbara Plan which the Government announced in February to deal with Roebourne’s problems. He inexorably brought his focus to a concession from her that Searle had briefed McGurk on the policy.
Searle had earlier answered several questions from other MPs, but only on Ellery’s invitation. So Goiran pounced:
“At the briefing at which the Director-General attended with the Minister for Child Protection, did the minister seek an assurance that none of the 184 victims of child sex offences in Roebourne are residing with a person charged or convicted with one or more child sex offences?”
Ellery: “I am not going to provide you with an answer to that question now because there are two parties that need to recall what happened. I am representing the minister and she is not here. I am happy to take that question on notice.”
Goiran: “The Director-General is here.”
Ellery: “And I am providing you with the answer.”
Goiran: “And you have indicated to me that the Director-General was personally present and I am asking whether an assurance was sought at that briefing and he is, according to you, the only person present here before the committee who is in a position to answer the question.”
Ellery: “And I have given you the answer that I am going to give you. I am happy to take the question on notice.”
Goiran: “You are refusing the Director-General to answer to the committee whether at the briefing he attended the minister sought an assurance.”
Ellery: “I give the answers and if I need assistance, I will ask for it from the agency officers who are here today.”
The committee chair, Labor’s Alanna Clohesy, ruled that Ellery was only required to indicate whether the question could be answered and noted she wanted it taken on notice.
Goiran: “The Director-General is sitting no more than 30cm away from you. Are you willing to ask him whether he has briefed any other minister on the West Pilbara plan?”
Ellery: “Honourable member, I have given you the answer to the question, which is that I am more than willing to provide you with an answer on notice that sets out how the briefings were conducted. The officers are here to assist me; if I think I need assistance from them, I will ask for it, otherwise I provide the answers.”
Or not.
The Roebourne scandal is shaping up as one of the worst social breakdowns WA has seen. Hundreds of children have been harmed.
This is a town with a cancer that was allowed to grow. The Government appears to be trying to “manage” the public’s knowledge about it.
Along the way, it is trashing the processes of Parliament.
Well, it certainly appears to be more concerned with protecting itself than with protecting the children. It seems obvious that there are children right at this moment who are being sexually abused by known paedophiles, and the government has no plan to do anything about it.
Roebourne, WA
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