I HAVEN’T SEEN MY KIDS IN 8 WEEKS

Island’s war on crime takes priority even over family

WHEN Palm Island Mayor Mislam Sam was elected, his community was closed under the Commonwealth biosecurity determination due to coronavirus concerns.

But while his family, including his children, remained on the mainland, Cr Sam knew he had a job to do – to lead his community out of the pandemic and address the major crime problems plaguing the island.

THE new Palm Island mayor has not seen his children in eight weeks, but he’s not complaining because he has a job to do.

Mislam Sam became Palm Island mayor amid one of the most difficult times in modern history.

The island went into lockdown under the Biosecurity Act on March 27 and since then no one has been allowed to leave or enter the island without going into 14 days’ isolation.

While Cr Sam’s family live in Townsville where his teenage children go to school, he remains on Palm Island, keeping the ship running as the community reels under the strict biosecurity rules.

But the coronavirus pandemic is just one battle Cr Sam has ahead of him.

With an election platform focused on addressing crime on Palm Island, Cr Sam said if the way the region was dealing with crime was not working, it needed to change.

Before she died in January this year, Cr Sam’s mother urged him to run for mayor.

He had been a councillor from 2012 to 2016, but was not voted back onto the Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council.

But after many community elders asked him to put his hand up for the position, it was his mother’s encouragement that pushed him over the line so he could help deal with the issues facing the community.

“The basis of my campaign was all about the law and order issues,” he said.

“Some of our social problems in community and we need to have different meas

ures and strategies to tackle these things because at the end of the day, whatever we do is going to affect the next generation.

“Doing things differently rather than continuing along the same track and expecting a different result.”

Cr Sam said even though he was dealing with COVID-19, his spare time was dedicated to exploring ways to develop a policing model that could work for the Palm Island community.

He added that the crime problems his community faced came down to poverty.

“If people have the opportunity for a job … if people can get up, go to work and provide for their households, this will have massive changes into our future,” he said.

“I think the first cab off the rank is getting local laws in place that can support things rather than against things.”

But Cr Sam added he wanted to return Palm Island to its former glory.

“Plain old hard work and building pride on our island will have untold ramifications into the future,” he said.

“The reefs are beautiful, it’s good to go and dive, but it’s about taking more pride in our home.”