Community group Hedland Aboriginal Strong Leaders have welcomed the Western Australian Government's support to expand the operation of Headland House safe space to seven nights a week.
Operated by the Julyardi Aboriginal Corporation, the expansion of the community service was agreed upon at a meeting held in Port Hedland on Wednesday.
At the meeting the WA Government vowed to provide a multi-agency response to child safety concerns in the Port Hedland area.
It comes after recent reports in The Australian of vulnerable Aboriginal children being left alone in poor conditions, sometimes for days at a time, in a home owned by the WA Department of Housing and Works.
Conveying their deep concern about child safety issues identified in recent weeks, Hedland Aboriginal Strong Leaders (HASL) said every child in Headland deserved to be safe.
"As Elders, and as a community, it is our shared responsibility to ensure children and young people in Hedland are looked after," the organisation said in a statement on Thursday.
"This responsibility includes families, services, organisations delivering support on the ground and government at every level. When any part of that system falls short, children pay the price."
HASL said as Elders "we advocate strongly for Aboriginal children to stay connected to family and culture because we know that connection makes them stronger".
"However, remaining with parents or other family members cannot be to the detriment of the child's safety and wellbeing," HASL said.
"Where necessary, we support placing children in out-of-home care in accordance with the established Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principles."
HASL's view comes after a path forward for the Port Hedland community was discussed at a meeting attended by a range of senior officers from government departments, non-government agencies, local government, and the community on Wednesday.
Following the meeting, Western Australian Minister for the Pilbara, Amber-Jade Sanderson, said attendees "committed to working in partnership with the community to resolve some of these issues and make the town safe for everyone".
"It's clear that there is a huge amount of work going on in Hedland amongst agencies... what is also clear is that there have been mixed opportunities for escalation of acute cases," Ms Sanderson said.
"There is absolutely work going on in terms of living with families, but those pathways for escalation need to be clarified and actioned."
HASL said they are "not interested in pointing fingers for the sake of it, but we are also not going to pretend the current system is working when it isn't".
"That failure needs to be named, it needs to be owned by those responsible, and it needs to be fixed by working together," they said.
HASL said following the meeting, they were encouraged by the Government's commitment to working with them on longer term change to ensure the area's children are safe.
"HASL and Julyardi will work with anyone who genuinely wants to deliver better outcomes for our children - government, industry, other Aboriginal organisations, and the broader Hedland community. Our door is open and will continue to be," they said.
"We also expect the same commitment in return. Every organisation and every agency working to Close the Gap in Hedland needs to show up, share information appropriately, follow through on what they say they'll do, and put children's safety ahead of process and politics.
"Our children can no longer afford short-term thinking that doesn't turn into long-term, systemic change."
HASL's perspective comes ahead of the upcoming independent roundtable on child safety, which is set to be held in Boorloo / Perth on Friday.
The round table was called National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People, Sue-Anne Hunter, following recent child safety reports from the Pilbara.
