Inquest ordered into murder of Indigenous children

Key points

• WA Attorney-General Tony Buti has ordered a state coroner's inquest into the deaths of three children who were murdered by their mother in Port Hedland in July 2022. Buti said fresh evidence and circumstances had not been considered by former coroner Phil Urquhart, who had decided against an inquest.
• The decision follows political pressure from the children's grandmother, Dorothy Papertalk, and others. Margaret Dale Hawke was sentenced in 2023 to a minimum of 25 years after pleading guilty to three counts of murder.
• Buti declined to give details of the new information.