The End Child Poverty campaign is taking recorded accounts from children in South Hedland to federal parliament, highlighting disadvantage in a region that generates substantial export wealth. The children’s voices, captured by phone through the Valuing Children Initiative and the local Youth Involvement Council, were due to be played to ministers and MPs in Canberra.
South Hedland is in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, near Port Hedland, one of the world’s largest bulk export ports. ABC News reported that billions of dollars in trade pass through the port each month, while children living less than 15 kilometres away experience what campaign participants described as profound disadvantage.
Tania Murray, chief executive of the Youth Involvement Council, said some young people returned to housing below acceptable standards, with little food, overcrowding and inadequate air conditioning despite the area’s desert climate. She said the project was designed to give children a safe opportunity to describe their own experiences rather than having adults speak for them.
The South Hedland area recorded a Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas score of 989, below the broader Port Hedland average of 1,011, according to figures cited by ABC News. Sarah Quinton, the campaign lead and executive director of the Valuing Children Initiative, said the group was invited to the community because local workers were concerned about the number of children they were seeing in difficulty.
Western Australia’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Jacqueline McGowan-Jones, said the contrast between the region’s economic output and children’s circumstances was confronting. She described the area as having a “two-speed economy” and said conversations with children, elders, community groups and Aboriginal community-controlled organisations showed that more needed to be done.
Quinton and McGowan-Jones called for a nationally legislated strategy to reduce child poverty, including a definition and measurements based on children’s experiences. The federal Department of Social Services said regional and remote families faced unique barriers and had access to programs intended to improve wellbeing and connection. Murray urged decision-makers to visit South Hedland and listen directly to its young people.