Julie Freeman

Shadow Minister for Road Safety Hon Julie Freeman MLC has expressed grave concern that, in the first week of October, Western Australia’s 2026 road toll is on track to be the worst result in over a decade.

With three further fatalities overnight, two in Boddington and one in Port Hedland, 164 people have now lost their lives on WA roads, twenty more than this time last year.

“We still have almost three months of the year to go. Many Western Australians know someone who has been killed or seriously injured on our roads. That should not be normal, and it should not be accepted.”

Ms Freeman said regional Western Australians continue to bear the brunt, with 93 of this year’s 164 deaths occurring on regional roads, despite only around one in five Western Australians living outside Perth. That’s 57 per cent of the toll in the regions.

Ms Freeman said recent announcements from Labor Road Safety Minister, including expanded high school road safety education, roadside testing for cocaine and two new camera trailers for Bunbury, were welcome but was unlikely to have any meaningful impact on the road toll.

“I support each of these measures. But cocaine testing simply brings WA into line with most other states, and two cameras for Bunbury is not a strategy for a state of this size. This is tinkering at the edges of a growing crisis.”

National Road Safety Data Hub figures show WA has the worst per capita road fatality rate of any state in Australia.

Ms Freeman said that, given the resources of the Road Trauma Trust Account and the Cook Labor Government’s much-lauded budget surpluses, the community would rightly expect WA’s roads to be some of the safest in the country.

“The new Minister has brought no new ideas and no new direction. It is time for an urgent and meaningful review of the Government’s approach, and an urgent investigation of what is working in other jurisdictions.”

The Cook Labor Government’s latest child protection announcement in South Hedland is grossly inadequate, with Nationals MLC Julie Freeman warning that temporary measures fail to address the systemic problems leaving vulnerable children at risk across Western Australia.

The Government today announced additional specialist child protection staff, increased oversight of complex and outstanding cases, and further measures to support vulnerable children in South Hedland.

Ms Freeman said the announcement failed to explain how the Government intended to address the underlying circumstances that had left children living in appalling conditions.

“This is a band aid solution to a much bigger problem,” she said.

“We cannot pretend that giving a child somewhere safe to go for a few hours at night makes up for the neglect they may face for the other 20 hours of the day.

“What happens when that safe space closes? Where do these children go? Who is making sure they have a safe home to return to?

“These children deserve more than a few hours of safety. They deserve a childhood free from neglect, with the care, protection and stability that every child should be able to take for granted.

“The Minister herself has acknowledged there are streets like Frisby Court in towns across regional Western Australia, so what is she actually doing to identify and protect the children living in those conditions?

“We could be talking about hundreds, potentially thousands, of vulnerable children across Western Australia who are not receiving the protection they need.

“This is a child safety crisis, and the Government must be held accountable for what it knew, when it knew it and what action it took to protect these children.

“The Government must demonstrate that it has a coordinated, statewide response to child neglect, with clear accountability and meaningful intervention that addresses the circumstances putting these children at risk.

“No child should have to endure a life of neglect while the Government looks the other way. These children need protection around the clock, not just somewhere to go when the sun goes down.

“WA Labor has been in government for almost a decade. This is their legacy.”

Shadow Minister Assisting the Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Hon Julie Freeman MLC, has slammed the government for continuing to ignore regional health concerns, following repeated delays in transferring patients with serious medical conditions, including children.

“Yesterday we heard the shocking story of a ten-year-old Karratha boy who had already spent six days in hospital waiting for an RFDS flight to Perth for surgery. Today, another alarming case has emerged: an eight-year-old East Kimberley boy with serious head injuries took two days to get to Perth, after similar delays.”

These examples expose the Cook Labor Government’s failure to resource regional health and patient retrieval services. Ms Freeman said regional families should be able to expect timely access to care, regardless of where they live.

“Any delay in receiving appropriate medical treatment results in prolonged suffering and delayed recovery. The Cook Labor Government must prioritise either ensuring the medical treatment regional families need is available where they live, or ensuring prompt transfer to the nearest facility with the expertise required.

“Anything less is unacceptable. Regional Western Australians are tired of being an afterthought for this government. They deserve a health system that gets them the care they need, when they need it, just like in Perth.”

Ms Freeman said these two cases were symptomatic of a broader failure to deliver adequate regional health services.

“For families in regional WA, distance can already mean the difference between accessing care locally and having to travel hundreds or thousands of kilometres. Regional families should not be left waiting days for the care their children need.”

Shadow Minister for Emergency Services Hon Rob Horstman MLC said the delay pointed to a retrieval system stretched well beyond its capacity.

“This is not about blaming the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Their crews do extraordinary work every single day across an enormous State,” Mr Horstman said.

“This is about asking whether they have been given the resources and capacity necessary to meet the demands being placed upon them. The State Government needs to explain what it is doing to ensure RFDS and regional patient retrieval services have sufficient aircraft, crews, backup capacity and funding to meet demand.”