Western Australia's police chief has backed the premier in linking high rates of gonorrhoea in remote indigenous communities to the sexual abuse of children.
While commonwealth funding cuts were the first reason the state government gave for reviewing the future of up to 150 communities, Premier Colin Barnett later cited social problems, including children suffering STIs.
On Monday, Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan backed the premier.
"It's been a concern of mine for quite some years now and there's not a lot of things that keep me awake at night but that's one of them," he told ABC radio.
"I am unable to provide the same level of policing to those people and the level of protection that you and other members of the community would expect me to provide.
"They are very remote, they are very far away from any support services and they have the most intractable difficulties including ... high rates of sex abuse, high rates of drug abuse, children with STIs and a whole range of complicated factors."
Opposition Aboriginal affairs spokesman Ben Wyatt said STI statistics that had been bandied around parliament were misleading.
He called for "respectful debate that's not anecdotal" and said any move to close communities needed "proper, evidence-based rationale".
But Mr O'Callaghan said about 90 per cent of sexual abuse in the communities was under-reported.
"We think the reality is much, much worse," he told Fairfax radio.
"Some of the people in the communities are related to other people in the community so there's a lot of intimidation and pressure not to betray the culture of people up there.
"We know that's going on."
He cited Oombulgurri, which was closed in 2011 partly for financial reasons and partly because of "horrific" child abuse, substance abuse and family violence.
Residents were relocated to Wyndham.
"There was no way of protecting the children there," Mr O'Callaghan said.
"There was so much predatory behaviour."
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