Screams of frustration are heard along the streets of Brockman in Carnarvon, as residents return home to discover they’ve been broken into yet again.
Key points:
- Carnarvon Shire Council president Eddie Smith says parts of the town look like a “war zone”
- Locals say they are living in fear of the increasing number of children breaking in to and damaging homes and properties
- He has asked the state government to address the worsening crime problems
Twenty-two-year-old mother-of-one Teresa Peck said the front gate of the house has been sitting in tatters for three months after a stolen car crashed through it.
“This isn’t safe. This isn’t safe for anybody,” Ms Peck said.
“Especially for us mob. Basically people are just walking over us.”
Next door are two state government owned houses that were set to become homes after being renovated.
Ms Peck said they had been vandalized four times in the past week and were now uninhabitable.
Next-door neighbor Doneka Oxenham said it was the same kids causing the same issues and they have had enough.
“I get on the phone to the police; [I] ring them up and they don’t come until the next day. What if they burnt themselves in that house? Even though it’s empty there’s still live wires in there,” she said.
Carnarvon Shire Council president Eddie Smith is pleading for more government support to manage escalating anti-social behavior that he said has left residents “absolutely broken” and rendered parts of the town a “war zone”.
In a letter addressed to West Australian Premier Mark McGowan and several cabinet ministers, Mr Smith said change was needed in how the government approached problems in the town.
“What has been done in the past is not working and what is being done now has not changed,” Mr Smith said.
“What is changing is the increase in community members that are absolutely broken from the ongoing impact of the actions of those in our community that are not being held accountable for their actions, and then coming to me and begging for something to be done.”
Mr Smith said some parts of town looked “like a war zone and at times [were] exactly that”, with ongoing domestic violence, child abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, and property damage.
“Businesses have been broken into multiple times — in fact, I don’t know anyone in our town who has not been impacted in some way, be it abuse, theft or damage to personal property,” he said.
Community leaders say too many state government services, like counseling for at risk children, are being managed from Geraldton which is about 500 kilometers away.
“There is no accountability. There is no oversight role. The management of most of these organizations is not in Carnarvon. It’s in Geraldton or in Perth,” Mr Smith said.
‘The money has been allocated
Alannah MacTiernan, whose portfolios include regional development and food and agriculture, was one of the ministers who received Mr Smith’s letter.
Ms MacTiernan said funding for social initiatives in Carnarvon and the Gascoyne had been allocated, and she was confident programs being rolled out would address Mr Smith’s concerns.
“In the last budget [we made] an announcement that we were setting up a Target 120 project right here in Carnarvon so we’ll be putting together a program here which will focus on those most-at-risk families and working very intensively with them,” she said.
“The fact that Carnarvon has been included in that $11 million bucket of funding is very much testament to the work that the shire and Eddie have been doing, because they have highlighted the problems that are here in Carnarvon and across the north.”
Ms MacTiernan believed programs such as the Target 120 project were already a success in other regions and would make a difference to the town when implemented.
Mr Smith said the local council initiated programs that were making a small change but without the state government’s support, it would not achieve what was required.
“I implore you and the ministers to visit Carnarvon to witness first-hand what is happening and hopefully gain an insight into how, with collaboration, we may make the changes our community desperately needs,” he said.
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