Kalgoorlie youth facility plans reviewed

Plans to build more facilities for troubled youth in the WA mining town of Kalgoorlie have stalled since an emergency summit held after Elijah Doughty's death.

Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan

WA Premier Mark McGowan says he will make sure Kalgoorlie's youth are engaged constructively. (AAP)

Plans to create more facilities for Kalgoorlie's wayward youth, a key outcome of an "emergency summit" held after 14-year-old Elijah Doughty was run down and killed on a stolen dirt bike, are being reviewed by the WA government.

The summit in November was attended by former WA premier Colin Barnett, federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion and local Aboriginal elders, but plans to build more facilities in a bid to re-engage troubled youth have stalled.

A drop-in centre where they could access services or simply hang out was proposed, but there's been no progress.

"We're still not being taken seriously," Aboriginal elder Trevor Donaldson told the ABC.

Asked about Kalgoorlie on Sunday, Premier Mark McGowan pointed to the $22 million Target 120 program, which was promised by Labor before the March state election and is modelled on a previous program scrapped by the Barnett government.

The idea is to focus on WA's 120 worst young offenders and assign a support person to their families to co-ordinate services from agencies including police, health, education, sport and recreation, corrective services and child protection.

"Those sorts of things in Kalgoorlie I think would work well," Mr McGowan told reporters.

"I'll do a stocktake of what's going on exactly in Kalgoorlie, what facilities are there and what's going to happen, but certainly making sure that young people are engaged constructively.

"That's why we're putting additional education assistants out there ... wrap-around services for families who have trouble ... that's why we're putting together a methamphetamine action plan and meth prisons."

Mayor John Bowler has called for more police in the gold mining town but Mr McGowan said that was a matter for the police commissioner.

The premier said he was pleased there had been relative calm in Kalgoorlie since a 56-year-old man, whose name is suppressed, was acquitted of manslaughter over Elijah's death on Friday.

The man - whose house was burnt down days after he chased and ran over the boy in his powerful ute, prompting his family to flee the state - admitted the lesser charge of dangerous driving occasioning death and was sentenced to three years' jail.

Many in the public gallery reacted angrily, shouting "murdering dog" and "you white c*** jury" when the verdict was handed down.

Outside court, supporters raised their fists in a sign of solidarity and held a moment's silence to remember the teen, while a candlelight vigil was held at the site of the collision on Friday night.


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Source: AAP



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