This story contains details some readers may find disturbing, and includes the names of people who have died.

A former WA Governor and former WA Children's Court president have joined federal Minister Malarndirri McCarthy in calling for an inquest into the murder of three Aboriginal children by their mother the day after she was turned away from a women's refuge.

Jamelia Hawke (10), Arnda (seven) and Kelvin (four months) were killed in Port Hedland in 2022.

Their grandmother, Yamatji-Wajarri woman Dorothy Papertalk, is fighting for an inquest to examine why her multiple warnings to authorities did not lead to the removal of the children for their safety.

An investigation by The Australian revealed Ms Papertalk had asked repeatedly to become the permanent carer for the children but was dismissed in the years and months before their deaths.

On Friday Senator McCarthy urged her Labor counterparts in Western Australia to ensure an inquest for the Hawke children went ahead.

Senator McCarthy visited Port Hedland last week for talks with local Aboriginal leaders and community members shortly after a second high profile case involving child welfare brought a national spotlight on the two, and the state's child protection system.

She told The Australian on Friday her visit had been planned for some time but "I deliberately waited because I think it's been important that the West Australian government has stepped in, as it has, over the last couple of weeks".

Senator McCarthy said it was also important to allow the new National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People, Sue-Anne Hunter, to complete her visit first.

Senator McCarthy said Ms Papertalk's plea to the WA government for an inquest "does need to be adhered to".

"I would like to reach out ... and support her calls for an inquest for her three grandchildren," she told The Australian.

WA Attorney-General Tony Buti has maintained he cannot override the Coroner's previous decision not to hold an inquest unless there is fresh evidence.

Now, former WA Governor Malcolm McCusker, one of the country's most renowned legal experts, has written to the minister and urged him to reconsider.

He told The West Australian Dr Buti's claim he does not have discretion is incorrect.

"That's not what the Act says," he said.

"It would be highly impractical, and highly unlikely, that the Parliament would intend that if a coroner received a lot of important information pointing to the need for an inquest, and the coroner were to refuse, that the Attorney could do nothing about it. That would be a very strange outcome."

The QC co-signed a letter with former Children's Court President Denis Reynolds, urging Dr Buti to direct an inquest.

The West Australian reports letter argues Section 22 of the Coroners Act 1996 "unambiguously" states that a coroner must hold an inquest if directed to do so by the Attorney-General.

"The Parliament of Western Australia chose not to include any text qualifying or limiting this power in the event of a prior refusal to a relative," they wrote.

"Reading a massive restriction into the Act that does not exist in plain text violates fundamental principles of modern Australian statutory interpretation".

Former solicitor general Grant Donaldson SC and the former WA Attorney-General who wrote the state law, Cheryl Edwardes, have also rejected the argument the current Attorney General does not have the power to have an inquest held under the circumstances.

On Monday, Premier Roger Cook defended the WA Government's response in the wake of new concerns about staff shortages in the Pilbara, and claims the Department of Communities has been slow to act on reports of neglect and abuse of Indigenous children, The West Australian reports.

WA Child Protection Minister Jessica Stojkovski has promised funding to expand a safe space for children in Port Hedland to seven nights a week, and ordered the State's chief practitioner oversee child safety investigations in the region.

She's also ordered a six-week "assurance review" of previous reviews and recommendations into the Hawke family murder.

Mr McCusker said a public hearing into the murder of the Hawke children is necessary for the sake of public confidence.

"The tragedy of the three murdered children of itself would call for an inquest, but this opens up the question of what systemic failures have occurred," he told The West Australian.

"Given that the children's grandmother, Dorothy Papertalk, has said that she made at least five desperate requests to the South Hedland district office of the Department of Communities for the children to be placed in her safe custody, and those pleas, she says, were disregarded.

"It seems to me that it's a matter of extraordinary high public interest to determine just what the background is to this tragedy.

"How could this have happened? And there needs to be a full inquiry to determine just what has happened, to see if there are any problems within the departments that have causes that need to be rectified."

Senator McCarthy spent last Thursday night with Aboriginal youth workers in Port Hedland who run a newly-extended night time safe house for children who had been on the streets after dark.

The minister is also understood to have spent time at Frisby Court, the street where The Australian reported up to 15 Aboriginal children were being left unsupervised in poor conditions for days at a time.

Senator McCarthy said: "There are so many kin, so many aunties and uncles, grandmothers, sisters and brothers who take on a lot of these kids of their own families."

"What we have to do through every state and territory jurisdiction is look at how we're resourcing kin to look after the kids because that's what I hear everywhere I go," she said.

Senator McCarthy told The Australian that Elders in Port Hedland told also her this.

"They want to be able to be supported to care for these children so that they are not lost in the system," she said.

On September 25, Aboriginal leaders from across Western Australia joined with National Commissioner Hunter in calling for sweeping reforms of the state's child protection system, a dedicated WA Commissioner for Indigenous children, and a First Nations children and families representative peak body in WA.

National Indigenous Times has contacted the WA Attorney General for comment.