Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

that other people were present for. And, unfortunately, I am not as well versed in the events of that day. I am not going to comments on the events of that day because I was not there. I think there is a very important issue at the heart of this report that I want to draw some attention to. I feel it is unfortunate that the debate and incidents around what has happened with Professor Triggs has detracted from what, I think, is a very important report. There are elements of the report that are worthy of discussing here.

I want to begin by saying that it is a good thing that there are fewer children in detention at this point in time, as there has been in other points in time. That is a good thing. What not is a good thing is, unfortunately, a lot of these children have been in there for a very long period of time. I personally believe that any opportunity to shine a light on how we deal with this complex and difficult policy matter is a actually good thing. The work that the Human Rights Commission has done and its role in highlighting some of this should actually be congratulated. I have read the report and I have gone through the recommendations. I do not necessarily agree with all the recommendations, but I think they are an important part of the public policy debate.

When you come to this chamber in the way that I have come to this chamber, it is very difficult not to have sympathy for the plight of a lot of the people and a lot of the children who are in detention. As a lot of people know, and my friends in this chamber know, I came to Australia when I was five years old. My parents were political dissidents in Iran. We had a very difficult story and we had a very big struggle to actually come to this country. We came under a different migration program. As I have said to others at different points in time, we could easily could have come under a refugee style convention. I would not have thought any less of my parents if they had chosen to flee the regime and come through other means.

There is a really difficult issue at the heart this—that is, how do you provide a fair and equitable system? How do you make sure you are doing the right thing by these children who are in detention and, at the same time, provide the necessary deterrent? No-one wants a situation where there are people risking their lives by taking unnecessary risks and where there are incidences of things like drownings at sea. This is a real issue that we have to confront and deal with. This is not an easy part of the policy debate. This is a hard issue in which we are trying to balance two very important principles.

When I look at the stories and at the incidence of the 161 children currently in detention, quite a few of them were actually born not that far from where I was born. Quite a few of those children are actually Iranians. Several of them were from a few hours where I was born and the part of Iran that I came from. This country has given me an incredible opportunity in the short period that I have been here—the 26 years that I have been in this country. I know that there are many other migrants in this chamber with different backgrounds and different migrant stories. In one way or another, apart from, perhaps, Senator Peris, we are all one or two generations away from being migrants. For a lot of us, it is a very, very difficult issue.

Professor Triggs should be congratulated on the report she has produced. She is a person of utmost integrity. Shining a light on these issues is a good thing. It should be encouraged. I think this is not an easy debate for us to have. There is actually a lot of quality in the recommendations she has put forward. Again, l do not agree with all of the recommendations. I am not necessarily sure that going down the path that she recommends at every instance is necessarily the right thing to do in a public policy sense. But I do believe that at the heart of all this, at the heart of this debate and at the heart of this report, there is a very important issue. The actions by Senator Brandis in making this entire debate about the professionalism of Professor Triggs, which I do not think should be in question, has detracted from the real debate we should be having and it is not an easy debate—that is, how do we do the right thing by these 161 children who are still in detention?

Question agreed to.