The families of indigenous Australians who have taken their own lives must be included in efforts to prevent further deaths, federal Labor’s first Aboriginal spokeswoman for indigenous Australians believes.
Linda Burney has expressed the sentiment after being appointed to the portfolio in Labor leader Anthony Albanese’s shadow cabinet on Sunday.
The Sydney MP is eager to see research on the factors that contributed to the suicides of some indigenous people in the past three years.
“Were there one or two common strands that every awful situation contained? I don’t know where the research is and we need to know more about it,” she said.
She would like to speak directly with families affected, saying she would be willing to travel alongside new minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt.
“(I want to) visit (affected families), sit down with them and talk to them. That’s absolutely crucial. They have to be part of putting forward what needs to happen,” Burney said.
Burney has stressed that the issue of youth suicide is not new, particularly in regional, rural and remote communities, and that early intervention strategies was key to grappling with the issue.
“Not just intervention in the year before or the two years before (they potentially take their life), but investment in early childhood education, healthy living, being strong in your culture and strong in yourself,” she said.
Burney’s 33-year-old son Binni Kirkbright-Burney died in 2017, with police declaring there were no suspicious circumstances.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week told his cabinet they needed to “break the curse” of young people taking their own lives.
“We are going to be curse-breakers around this table when it comes to attacking that issue,” he said.
With AAP