An Indigenous Labor MP says a suicide epidemic is crippling her home community, calling for urgent attention to address the “crisis”.
“We’ve had three terrible suicides in this community in less than a week,” she told Sky News Australia. The Tiwi Islands are home to about 3000 people and are famous for producing some of the country’s greatest Australian Rules footballers.
“This is the fourth young man that I call grandson that has taken his life and it hurts, and it runs deep and we’ve got to stop accepting this is the lot of young men in remote Aboriginal communities,” she said. “People are talking about the cheeky one again which is Kronic which … in the past has caused a lot of issues with young men not being able to cope once they’ve smoked it,” she said.“We’ve got to stop this from happening. It’s a crisis and no-one’s looking at it,” she said.
“The issue of young men and suicides aways seems to slip under the radar and I think we’ve got to stop ignoring it, something’s got to give,” she said.
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