Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I read the following statement with mixed emotions and sadness, because people from my WA community are hurting and angry that women, mothers, aunties and grannies have to travel here to demand to find their missing loved ones. I stand united today with these matriarchs to demand justice for their missing First Nations men. These include: Wesley Lockyer, from Port Hedland; Jeremiah Rivers, missing and believed to be murdered in Queensland; Clinton Lockyer, missing for two years, from Roebourne; Wylie Oscar, missing from near Fitzroy Crossing; Zane Stevens, lured from Roebourne and believed to have been murdered in Broome; and Brenton Shar, missing in Geraldton.

These men's loved ones have rallied and they have funded their own searches. And they are traumatised and unable to access mental health support because there simply aren't any services. The police response to their calls to offer rewards have been ignored. Requests for information and AFP oversight have been ignored. They need to bring their children home, to have their spirits at rest. How would you feel if this was your loved one?

These tragedies are not isolated but are reflective of systemic neglect. The claims by WA police that the disappearances involve no criminality, dismissing them as 'going walkabout', is both racist and deeply insulting to our culture. This is compounded by the inaction and indifference received by the loved ones from the WA state government. It's simply unacceptable. We are all waiting for the next brother, son or grandchild to go missing.

These families deserve financial and mental health support, and their sons and families deserve justice and accountability—and to be able to rest them at home. They are now calling on the highest government in the country to demand a royal commission into missing and murdered First Nations men, independent oversight of investigations by the AFP into missing men, and a culturally appropriate taskforce for the missing men in the north-west of Western Australia. We must act now, and the children— (Time expired)