Tony Abbott calls for briefing on mentally impaired Aboriginal woman
|
Version 0 of 1. The prime minister has signalled he may intervene in the case of a mentally impaired Aboriginal woman being held in a Western Australia jail despite not having been convicted of a crime. Roseanne Fulton, who suffers from foetal alcohol syndrome, has spent 18 months in Kalgoorlie prison after being charged with driving offences and being found unfit to plead or face trial. Fulton, 24, has been placed into the care of WA’s mentally impaired accused review board but the Northern Territory health minister, Robyn Lambley, is her joint guardian, with Ian Mckinlay, who is campaigning for her release. Abbott said he asked for a full briefing of the case on Friday and may comment after he has received it. “I personally asked for a briefing because I have often remarked that I not only want to be known as an infrastructure prime minister, but I also want to be prime minister for indigenous affairs and I do take these issues seriously,” he said, when asked if he had taken a personal interest in the case. “But I don’t comment on them until I’ve got all the facts and I’d like to get all the facts before I say any more.” He expects to say something when he has “got to the bottom of it”. Fulton was supposed to stay at Kalgoorlie prison only until “more suitable accommodation” had been found, and mental health advocates have accused the Northern Territory government of “passing the buck”. The Northern Territory attorney general, John Elferink, told Guardian Australia Fulton’s case was not his government’s responsibility. “There are no extradition arrangements between Western Australian and the Northern Territory for people who are essentially wards of the state,” he said on Thursday. “It’s up to Western Australia to release her.” Mckinlay says he has tried many times to contact Lambley about the case but has not been granted any time with her. “She was placed in Western Australia by the Northern Territory health department, and she remains an adult guardian client of the Northern Territory health minister, jointly with me,” Mckinlay said. “So she’s directly under the guardianship of the Northern Territory minister for health.” Fulton was promised a place in a secure care facility near Alice Springs at one point but the offer was withdrawn over concerns about how Fulton would interact with the men at the facility. |