Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship (Senator Evans) to a question without notice asked by Senator Hanson-Young today relating to mandatory detention.

The issue of mandatory detention and the long-term psychological effects that this has had on children and their families is an ongoing issue that needs to be addressed. I was disheartened to see that the minister would not commit to an in-depth inquiry into this issue during his response to the call for a royal commission, which needs to be established as a matter of urgency.

The Tampa incident entered Australia’s history books as a blight on our human rights record seven years ago last week, yet we still have not taken responsibility for the impact it had on innocent people. The Greens have been at the forefront of calls for an end to mandatory detention and, while we welcome the move announced by Minister Evans to a more humane and compassionate approach to the processing of these people, we were disappointed to see the current government remain committed to this policy as a whole.

Over the past century the global community has witnessed an increasing number of refugees fleeing from their homeland in fear of persecution, a large majority of whom are women and children. Yet, after years of callous treatment and abuse, there is still much work to be done to restore Australia’s commitment to refugees under our international obligations. Australia is a signatory to the 1951 refugee convention and its 1976 protocol, which explicitly states:

No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time ...

While I acknowledge the recent work of the Rudd government to implement a policy that explicitly states there is a presumption against detention, we as elected parliamentarians carry a responsibility to assist people affected by their time spent locked up in the system, even if these people are no longer detained.

In my first speech in this chamber I outlined my rage at the disgrace that was the Tampa and the events that followed, whereby we saw images of refugee children with their lips sewn together, who in desperation for understanding and help had no other means of communication but the mutilation of their own bodies. So I am concerned that this government will not even consider establishing an inquiry, be it a royal commission or even extending the terms of reference for the current inquiry into mandatory detention in Australia, given the clear long-term effects detention has had on children and their families.

In 2004 the report of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s inquiry into children in detention titled A last resort? found that 976 children were in immigration detention in the years 1999-2000; 1,923 children in 2000-01; 1,696 children in 2001-02; and 703 children in 2002-03. Surely, when we look back at the numbers of children held in detention from 1992 to 2005 and the obvious mental health problems that this has caused and continues to cause, we have a responsibility to face the fact that these children were denied a safe, healthy and joyful childhood—opportunities that we would expect as a given for our own children.

During HREOC’s own inquiry, psychiatrists made the observation that those children and adolescents who had been, or were currently, held in detention were more likely to need long-term mental health treatment and other things such as educational support and preferably group activities to look at improving their peer relationships and socialisation. These clear and ongoing problems that children and their families continue to battle on a daily basis reaffirm the need for an inquiry into how much has really changed since 2005 and whether there is a true accountability in the system. We must ensure that punishing and violating people who need our protection and safety never, ever happens again.

I welcome the minister’s comments that he wants this to change, but we need to address the issues still being suffered by the innocent people who are locked up. We must ensure that adequate support, in whatever form, is provided for those who have been wrongly treated. It is up to the government of the day to turn the page on this dark period in Australia’s history by addressing the needs of these children and their families today.

Question agreed to.