Coroner's Finding: KEN Kunmanara

Contributing factors

• petrol sniffing and intoxication
• anger and emotional distress
• conflicts with other sniffers
• absence of mental health intervention

Coroner's recommendations

1. Commonwealth and State Governments recognize petrol sniffing as urgent threat to Anangu communities
2. Address socio-economic factors including poverty, hunger, illness, lack of education, unemployment, boredom and hopelessness
3. Wider Australian community to assist Anangu in addressing petrol sniffing
4. Accelerate government efforts through inter-agency collaboration to move beyond information-gathering phase
5. Prioritize inter-governmental coordination to avoid fragmentation of service delivery
6. Establish senior government presence on or near Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands with authority to manage programmes
7. Implement multi-faceted strategies targeting primary, secondary and tertiary intervention levels
8. Ensure SAPOL personnel in rural and remote areas receive search and rescue training
9. Establish properly coordinated, trained and supervised youth worker programmes
10. Extend neuropsychological testing of chronic petrol sniffers across the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands
11. Further support outstation/homeland projects for rehabilitation
12. Continue Commonwealth support for Opal Unleaded fuel development and implement security measures for Avgas
13. Develop crime prevention strategies once police resources increased on the Lands
14. Enhance role of Children, Youth and Family Services in child protection and prevention of self-harming behaviour
15. Ensure Coordinator of Government Services resides on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands
16. Increase police presence, accommodation and personnel on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands
17. Implement all interventions as integrated multi-faceted strategy