❓ A parliamentary question regarding the Yiriman suicide prevention project in the Kimberley region. The questioner accuses the Minister of misleading the public regarding funding, while the Minister defends her position, citing inaccuracies in the question and advocating for a community-based action plan approach.
AnsweredQoN 201Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
YIRIMAN
SUICIDE PREVENTION PROJECT
201. Hon LJILJANNA RAVLICH to the Minister for Mental
Health:
No notice has been given of this question. I refer to the 25
reported suicide deaths in the Kimberley in the past 12 months and the Yiriman
suicide prevention project.
(1) Given the
Yiriman project focused on young Aboriginal people between the ages of 12 and
30 years and worked with the Aboriginal families in the south, central and West
Kimberley region to prevent suicide, why has the minister not provided suicide
prevention funds to this project?
(2) Did the
minister mislead the Western Australian public when she told ABC news on 20 April
2011 that she was keen for the Yiriman project to continue and that she was
willing to fund it, when that is clearly not the case?
SUICIDE PREVENTION PROJECT
201. Hon LJILJANNA RAVLICH to the Minister for Mental
Health:
No notice has been given of this question. I refer to the 25
reported suicide deaths in the Kimberley in the past 12 months and the Yiriman
suicide prevention project.
(1) Given the
Yiriman project focused on young Aboriginal people between the ages of 12 and
30 years and worked with the Aboriginal families in the south, central and West
Kimberley region to prevent suicide, why has the minister not provided suicide
prevention funds to this project?
(2) Did the
minister mislead the Western Australian public when she told ABC news on 20 April
2011 that she was keen for the Yiriman project to continue and that she was
willing to fund it, when that is clearly not the case?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2) I
thank the member for not providing any notice because it gives me the
opportunity to speak at length on this.
Hon Sue Ellery : No, it does not!
Hon HELEN MORTON : No; i t does, because the question
is so wide ranging and there are so many inaccuracies in that question that one
cannot go along thinking that what the question suggested is actually correct,
because it is very incorrect. For a start, the figure the member quoted of 25 deaths
is something that is not borne out by the figures from the coroner's
office. The member needs to be aware that using those sorts of figures is
perhaps misleading. It would be advisable for Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich to get some correct figures before she
starts making those sorts of statements.
I now refer to the Yiriman project. I met with Wes Morris and
the elders et cetera from Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Cultural Centre when I
was in Broome —
Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich : He says nothing has happened since!
Hon HELEN MORTON : Do you want me to talk to you or do
you want to wait and listen?
The PRESIDENT : Order! I want to hear the answer
without interjections.
Hon HELEN MORTON : Because i t is an answer worth
listening to.
I met with Mr Wes Morris and the elders. I talked to them at
length about how the community action plans would incorporate all the
individual projects that individual interests have in a particular community,
and if they would come together and develop that as a community-based action
plan that the community as a whole would sign off to, that is the kind of
community action plan that we would support reporting to the Ministerial
Council for Suicide Prevention. For the Yiriman project, KALACC already get
funding somewhere in the vicinity of $500 000 a year from various sources,
including the commonwealth, private mining enterprises and other organisations.
Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich : That is not the point. The point is
they came to you, you said yes, and now you will not deliver!
Hon HELEN MORTON : Mr President, could you p lease ask
her to be quiet?
The PRESIDENT : Order!
Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich : Sorry, Mr President.
Hon HELEN MORTON : I will speak through the Chair, Mr
President, because I think it is much more sensible to do that.
The PRESIDENT : That is a good idea.
Hon HELEN MORTON : I can always tell when the member
opposite does not want to hear what I have to say because she tries to
interject with all sorts of other silly ideas.
As I was saying, the Yiriman project already gets a
substantial amount of funding from the commonwealth and other sources. We have
asked them to tease out what part of the Yiriman project they would like to
bring into the Fitzroy Valley's total community action plan. The
Yiriman project also wants to roll out the project for young folk in that
particular area and around that particular Aboriginal group across the entire
Kimberley. We are not certain that all the Aboriginal communities in the entire
Kimberley want to pick up on that project. Once again we are saying: bring it
back and integrate it into what happens within the Fitzroy Valley. Let us look
at that as part of the Fitzroy Valley community action plan.
I am pleased to say that I subsequently wrote back to Wes
Morris—who, I might add, lives in Melbourne—on behalf of the
KALACC people. I think it was in April that I wrote back. I suggested to them
again that this is the way to go about doing that. I know they have a copy of
that letter because it has recently been presented to me in a bundle of
correspondence.
More recently of course I was on radio, and so was Wes
Morris, talking about that. The One Life team is in the Kimberley at the moment
trying to pull together a couple of second-phase developments in the One Life
project community action plan. Consequently, Wes Morris is again trying to push
his particular interest in that. I have said, and I continue to say, that that
project should be brought back as part of the Fitzroy Valley community action
plan so that we can be clear that the community supports it as part of its
overall community action plan. We have funds that we want to invest in the
second phase of community action plans in that community. My comments on radio
were quite accurate about what we intend to do, what we hope to do, and how we
hope to be involved in providing additional resources into that area for
suicide prevention.
thank the member for not providing any notice because it gives me the
opportunity to speak at length on this.
Hon Sue Ellery : No, it does not!
Hon HELEN MORTON : No; i t does, because the question
is so wide ranging and there are so many inaccuracies in that question that one
cannot go along thinking that what the question suggested is actually correct,
because it is very incorrect. For a start, the figure the member quoted of 25 deaths
is something that is not borne out by the figures from the coroner's
office. The member needs to be aware that using those sorts of figures is
perhaps misleading. It would be advisable for Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich to get some correct figures before she
starts making those sorts of statements.
I now refer to the Yiriman project. I met with Wes Morris and
the elders et cetera from Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Cultural Centre when I
was in Broome —
Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich : He says nothing has happened since!
Hon HELEN MORTON : Do you want me to talk to you or do
you want to wait and listen?
The PRESIDENT : Order! I want to hear the answer
without interjections.
Hon HELEN MORTON : Because i t is an answer worth
listening to.
I met with Mr Wes Morris and the elders. I talked to them at
length about how the community action plans would incorporate all the
individual projects that individual interests have in a particular community,
and if they would come together and develop that as a community-based action
plan that the community as a whole would sign off to, that is the kind of
community action plan that we would support reporting to the Ministerial
Council for Suicide Prevention. For the Yiriman project, KALACC already get
funding somewhere in the vicinity of $500 000 a year from various sources,
including the commonwealth, private mining enterprises and other organisations.
Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich : That is not the point. The point is
they came to you, you said yes, and now you will not deliver!
Hon HELEN MORTON : Mr President, could you p lease ask
her to be quiet?
The PRESIDENT : Order!
Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich : Sorry, Mr President.
Hon HELEN MORTON : I will speak through the Chair, Mr
President, because I think it is much more sensible to do that.
The PRESIDENT : That is a good idea.
Hon HELEN MORTON : I can always tell when the member
opposite does not want to hear what I have to say because she tries to
interject with all sorts of other silly ideas.
As I was saying, the Yiriman project already gets a
substantial amount of funding from the commonwealth and other sources. We have
asked them to tease out what part of the Yiriman project they would like to
bring into the Fitzroy Valley's total community action plan. The
Yiriman project also wants to roll out the project for young folk in that
particular area and around that particular Aboriginal group across the entire
Kimberley. We are not certain that all the Aboriginal communities in the entire
Kimberley want to pick up on that project. Once again we are saying: bring it
back and integrate it into what happens within the Fitzroy Valley. Let us look
at that as part of the Fitzroy Valley community action plan.
I am pleased to say that I subsequently wrote back to Wes
Morris—who, I might add, lives in Melbourne—on behalf of the
KALACC people. I think it was in April that I wrote back. I suggested to them
again that this is the way to go about doing that. I know they have a copy of
that letter because it has recently been presented to me in a bundle of
correspondence.
More recently of course I was on radio, and so was Wes
Morris, talking about that. The One Life team is in the Kimberley at the moment
trying to pull together a couple of second-phase developments in the One Life
project community action plan. Consequently, Wes Morris is again trying to push
his particular interest in that. I have said, and I continue to say, that that
project should be brought back as part of the Fitzroy Valley community action
plan so that we can be clear that the community supports it as part of its
overall community action plan. We have funds that we want to invest in the
second phase of community action plans in that community. My comments on radio
were quite accurate about what we intend to do, what we hope to do, and how we
hope to be involved in providing additional resources into that area for
suicide prevention.
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