The Coronial inquest into the death of five Torres Strait Islanders aboard the ill-fated Immigration Department vessel, Malu Sara, did not provide what had been hoped for by the local community, Torres Shire Mayor Pedro Stephen says.

And any adverse finding in next month’s Coroner’s report against the community will take 10-20 years to overcome.

"The inquest’s investigating focus was on the wrong people – it was on the five victims, not on the main parties involved – several government agencies."

Mayor Stephen named Immigration, AusSAR and Queensland Police among the agencies.

State Coroner Michael Barnes will hand down his findings on Thursday Island on Thursday, February 12.

The loss of the six-metre Malu Sara en route from from Saibai to Badu on October 15, 2005, near Badu, took the lives of Immigration officers Wilfred Baira and Ted Harry and passengers Valorie Saub, Flora Enosa and her daughter Ethena.

Only one of the five bodies has been recovered, while the Malu Sara too has never been found to reveal the secrets of the disaster.

Mayor Stephen said: "The writing was on the wall all along; there won’t be any responsibility attached to the agencies involved, the local people will be blamed.

"Anyone can see that."

Mayor Stephen said: "The locals are being asked to shoulder the responsibility that should have been carried by the respective agencies.

"It will affect the physical, mental and emotional well-being of the families and communities and it will have a domino effect on the whole region.

"That is blatant evidence of cost shifting so that agencies will be absolved of any responsibilities in the face of legal action."

Mayor Stephen said there were numerous instances where the locals had been blamed, rather than the authorities – many cases involving boating accidents in the region; the deaths of three people travelling from Badu to Thursday Island; a helicopter crash near Dauan in which a prominent leader died; the Lockhart River ‘plane crash; a young man who died in a Police chase on Thursday Island; five people who died at Poruma and other cases.

"There are individual cases where deaths have never really been investigated in accidents. The community continues to wear the blame.

"We talk about closing the gap, but where do we start? It starts with the Government and its representatives taking the blame for its actions and carrying the weight of its own responsibilities.

"That’s a good place to start.

"The community is carrying the responsibilities also of border issues. There are numerous government agencies who are responsible for the border issue, but the community is required to discharge that responsibility."

The Mayor cited the recent deaths of PNG nationals at Erub and Saibai where the local communities had to carry the responsibilities after the relevant agencies, he said, had wiped their hands of them.