The State Government’s only female Aboriginal MP is calling for traditional law to be allowed in WA’s indigenous communities, saying “white man’s” response to indigenous crime and other major issues in those communities had failed.

In an explosive attack on her own Government and that of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Kimberley MLA Josie Farrer said she felt “angry, frustrated and powerless” and blamed herself for not doing enough, after a spate of suicides that had claimed the lives of seven Aboriginal children across Australia, including four from WA.

Ms Farrer said an inevitably slow response of the McGowan and Morrison governments to the crisis would be to set up a taskforce of “mostly white people” who had little idea about the issues they faced.

She called on authorities to allow traditional law — which in some communities includes payback through spearing and other violent acts — alongside mainstream law.

“There are two different laws that we are supposed to live by — white mainstream and our customary law,” Ms Farrer said.

“We get persecuted if we take matters in our own hands (our own law) under white man law but are expected to practice our law for native title rights. Aboriginal people have their own governance and we need that to be recognised. We need that to be implemented when making decisions about our own people.”

The Kimberley has the worst rate of Aboriginal suicide in Australia and was recently the focus of a coronial inquest into the deaths of 13 young people, with its findings expected to be delivered next month.

Ms Farrer said people in the Kimberley were living in Third World conditions and no one knew where millions of taxpayer dollarswere being spent because they were not flowing through to people on the ground.

“People feel hopeless, disempowered and numb, pain with alcohol and other substances,” Ms Farrer said.

“We don’t have the facilities in place to support these people properly and instead of trying to support them we kick them while they are down by putting the white card in place, taking their children, locking them up or moving them to town.

“The cycle continues on to the children. Children are committing crimes, drinking and hurting people. Sexual abuse happens and people won’t name them. Victims can’t speak up because they are shamed and scared. You can’t go to health services because of the stigma and people yarn too much.

“We can’t practice our customary ways of dealing with people such as these because it is not allowed under the white way.”

Acting Premier Sue Ellery said the Government was taking the spate of suicides seriously.

A 2016 report into Aboriginal youth suicide had helped the Government implement a series of responses. They would be “further informed” by the pending release of the Coroner’s report. “This Government recognises Aboriginal people and their culture as one of the State’s great assets and we are working closely with Aboriginal people to deliver culture-centred and community-specific outcomes to improve the outlook for young people,” Ms Ellery said.