QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator NAMPIJINPA PRICE (Northern Territory) (14:13): My question is to the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Senator McCarthy. Last month, Australians heard the horrific story of Dorothy Papertalk, an Aboriginal grandmother from Port Hedland who repeatedly pleaded with Western Australian child protection authorities to intervene to protect her three grandchildren.

Her warnings were not acted on. Her three grandchildren were subsequently murdered by their mother. Now we have disturbing reports of vulnerable children in South Hedland allegedly living without proper adult supervision and exposed to drugs, violence and dangerous conditions.

Senior Nyamal Pitjikarli elder Doris Eaton has described the situation as kids 'defending themselves from meth and marijuana and violence and dangerous men who want to take advantage of them'. Minister, in the face of these repeated warnings about vulnerable Indigenous children, what action have you personally taken to ensure these children are safe?