Jess Beckerling

CW: this post discusses the deaths of Aboriginal children.

What we’ve seen in the media about the safety of Aboriginal kids in Hedland is devastating.

First Nations women leaders have been calling for change on child safety in WA for decades.

At the First Nations Roundtable that Brad Pettitt and I recently convened, the message from the women was crystal clear: First Nations women should be front and centre in the rooms where decisions are made about First Nations women and children.

I stood with Dr Hannah McGlade, Noongar woman and First Nations human rights legal expert, to back the calls of Aboriginal women leaders for:

🟢 A WA Aboriginal Children’s Commissioner
🟢 An urgent roundtable of Aboriginal women working in child and family safety
🟢 A statewide peak body for Aboriginal women and children’s safety and wellbeing

Today, I moved a motion in Parliament calling on the Premier to appoint an Aboriginal Children’s Commissioner and fund an Aboriginal women-led statewide peak body – without delay.

Today’s revelations are explosive 💥

FOI documents published this morning by Peter Milne at Boiling Cold show that in March 2023, just before he retired, Mark McGowan told Alcoa to back off from our drinking water or he would halt their operations.

Rather than holding firm on McGowan’s position, the Cook Labor Government has done the opposite – giving Alcoa greater access to the forests around our drinking water dams, against Water Corporation’s advice.

We now know Water Corporation’s board was told its advice on protecting our water was no longer supported, because the departments involved had formal instructions to have no impact on social or economic factors.

This is not the wild west, where rogue American companies get whatever they want while they risk our water and our health.

The Cook Government must act and finally put WA’s water and forests ahead of Alcoa’s profits.

Read Peter Milne’s full investigation at Boiling Cold 🔗 Linked in my bio!

One Nation’s Luke Herdegen turned up for his first day in WA Parliament yesterday.

So did we, for a mass workout on the steps... or a bro-test 💪

Brad Pettitt and I were invited to speak and asked to reject the idea that family and domestic violence is a two-way street.

Easy, because it’s blatant rubbish 😤

Pauline Hanson has called it exactly that – a two-way street – and said it’s taking police time away from real crime.

The fact is that 98% of victims are women and children.

So to Luke, Rod, Pauline and every One Nation member: sit with this properly. Transphobia does not stand in for action on FDV ✊

Just last week in Port Kennedy, in the electorate of newly elected One Nation member Luke Herdegen, a man tried to burn a woman to death.

Pauline Hanson and One Nation have been on the wrong side of this debate for years.

Luke Herdegen now represents one of the worst-affected electorates in WA.

We’re calling on him to front up to the reality of family and domestic violence and femicide in this state.

One from the archives! This Channel 10 News report is from 1997 in the Giblett Forest. Keep your eyes peeled for a familiar face on the front line – some things never change 💚