Child death warning

There has been a call to educate Kimberley people of the dangers of sleeping in the same bed with their infants.

The State Opposition claims the State Government must implement an education campaign on co-sleeping and facilitate better information sharing between child health and the Department of Community Development (DCD) in remote and rural areas.

The latest damning Child Death Review Committee Annual Report showed that of the 100 reportable child death coroner notifications received by DCD, 55 had some form of contact with the department.

Shadow Community Development Minister Robyn McSweeney said the latest damning report showed the highest number of deaths reportedly occurred from SIDS and 'unexplained deaths', which had been put down to co-sleeping.

"The tragedy in this is that deaths from co-sleeping are preventable and the State Government is dragging its heels on doing anything about it," Mrs McSweeney said.

"Where is the child health? Why have the protocols broken down? Why is there no education campaign in the Kimberley region and the wider community on co-sleeping?

"This needs to happen as a matter of urgency; it's a small start to addressing a problem that the government clearly is not interested in looking at."

Mrs McSweeney said the report painted a sad picture of government and departmental failure and strengthened calls for real change.

"Clearly, there needs to be a broom run through this department and real changes implemented via a Royal Commission," she said.

"It is a sad indictment on this government, and particularly Shelia McHale and David Templeman, that of the 254 children who died in 2005/2006, 180 were aged between 0 and 1 year.

"Many come from a socially disadvantaged position and over half were Aboriginal," she said.