Recent attacks aimed at Western Australia by NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and Treasurer Matt Keane, regarding gas reserves and GST reform, left barely a scratch on the WA Premier, with Mark Gowan noting that NSW doesn’t even have receiver depots for the gas Keane wanted WA to send its way, and that Perrottet’s push to overturn WA’s guaranteed 75-cents-per-dollar GST floor had support from neither the former federal government nor the current one.
Furthermore, Western Australians, with the total support of the market-controlling Seven West Media, back McGowan to the hilt when he defends these key economic planks of the state’s economy.
But on the domestic front, questions now must be asked as to whether McGowan’s long honeymoon is coming to an end. Were it not for the fact that McGowan is less than halfway through his next four-year term, and that the Coalition was virtually destroyed at the March 2021 election, the government would be looking wobbly.
The nurses and police unions are in deep dispute with the government, while the treatment of juveniles in detention is severely damaging the reputation of the government and McGowan himself.
Hubristic resistance to criticism from highly qualified professionals over the incarceration of juveniles in an adult penitentiary — and also in an arguably not-fit-for-purpose juvenile detention centre — is a sadly inadequate response to a problem beyond the capacity of the justice and penal systems to deal with.
McGowan and WA Corrective Services Minister Bill Johnston have effectively told the current and former presidents of the Children’s Court, the former custodial services inspector, a former police commissioner, and the commissioner for children and young people that they don’t know what they are talking about.
“Children’s Court president accuses McGowan government of ‘thumbing nose’ at justice over abuse of kids in prison” headed last Wednesday’s The West Australian. The lead story said: “Children’s Court president Judge Hylton Quail slams McGowan Govt for ‘deliberately flouting law'”.
And this was followed up three days later by Jacqueline McGowan-Jones, the commissioner for children and young people, launching a withering attack on McGowan and Johnston.
McGowan-Jones told The West Australian that the government had breached the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
On this grievously important matter, McGowan appears to have lost his steady hand on the tiller approach to government. An arrogant “I know best” approach just doesn’t cut it against critics whose expertise is widely acknowledged.
Johnston had already announced there would be a full review of the juvenile justice system, so both he and McGowan could have referred to this while at the same time encouraging the experts to make submissions to the review.
In the meantime, McGowan needs to get on the front foot and invite critics and experts to a roundtable brainstorm on how best to resolve — especially in the short term but also on a more permanent basis –this pressing and gut-wrenching issue that has WA’s populace wondering: how could such a terrible situation arise in a state as wealthy as ours?
What do you think of the state of juvenile justice in Western Australia? Let us know by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
It is astonishing that the article, which is accurate enough as far as it goes, does not once mention the part played by Western Australia’s treatment of its aboriginal population. The word aboriginal is not used once in the article. The horrors of the prison system are just one of several egregious examples of the complete failure to tackle the embedded prejudice that infests WA’s administration. MacGowan’s government is merely continuing the culture that has existed form the beginning of WA.
I wonder why that is … ?
Because it’s not relevant.
Way more relevant than the wealth of the state.
Such a terrible situation arises without reference to the wealth of the state; it’s hardly relevant.
Perhaps more relevant is a cultural history of brutal colonialism, a widely held philosophy (apparently tailored to dovetail with toxic masculinity) that somehow adversity nurtures, and a general disposition inclined to sweep unpleasant matters under the rug.
Power has gone to McGowan’s head. Can we call it absolute power? This is all under-written by the total support he has from Seven West Media – Kerry Stokes and the dumbing down of West Australians. Thanks to Seven West Media, critical thinking is not their forte. One of your finest articles, Laurie.
You may call it “absolute power”others rightly may call strong decisive leadership.
Like selling the WA Landgate building valued at $37m for just $17m. The benefactor being one of his developer mates. Is that what you call decisive leadership?
Don’t forget also making the sausages run on time, mit Senf.
The West Australian newspaper is completely biased against the Labor Party, so when they have an issue like this to trumpet about they almost vomit with excitement. Prisons and schools here are the victims of the Commonwealth Dept. of Social Services, which keeps their inmates in poverty: enough of them, anyway, to create havoc beyond the ability of the State to cope. Privatising the prisons was always a bad move as well, like the aged care system. Profit first, secrecy second.
Hitting McGowan over the head with the State’s so-called surplus (there will be a surplus after we have paid off the huge debt incurred by previous governments, some time far in the future, perhaps). The GST agreement means we are guaranteed to give to the other States up to a quarter of our GST earnings. Those States scream because it used to be two thirds, and now they’re being robbed!
The absence of a useful Opposition in WA is not the fault of McGowan. It is entirely due to the feeble uselessness of the Liberal Party here, so blame them.
But children should never be in prison. Certainly not for someone’s profit. All prisoners eventually come back out…
Prisons and schools are a State responsibility. The State decides how much funding to put into them, and also how many people they want to incarcerate.
WA makes up 10% of Australia’s population but has 30% of its prisoners. It is a far more punitive State than most others by choice (I live here, by the way).
“The West Australian newspaper is completely biased against the Labor Party”
Times and dates please. You are are obviously not a West Australian.
When the sun don’t shine and the wind don’t blow, the power grid begs for gas. The weak-kneed amongst us make excuses for it so that what gas wants, gas gets. It is gas that is the enemy here, not Premiers McGowan or Perrottet. We should be raging at the perpetual expansion of gas, requiring our politicians to execute a relentless diminution until a final triumphant extinction of gas before 2050.
On the contrary the majority of people in WA recognise that most of these prisoners are juveniles in name only. They are violent in prison and yet expect to be treated like errant children. Police and prison officers also have a right to return safely to their families after work. Not be subject to repeated violence from the same offenders who reject any attempt to rehabilitate them. And while in prison they are not in their original communities, commiting more acts of physical, sexual or property violence.
Juveniles in name only?
Take a hike
You too.