There’s a certain special kind of empowerment that you only feel when you’re in a job and you truly do not care what your Boss thinks, says or does anymore. It doesn’t happen often – or in every job, for that matter. But when it does, it’s an oddly beautiful thing.
“Debate about Gillian Triggs misses the main point. The main point is the children. Children in detention is something nobody wants.”
“The issue is not Gillian Triggs, or personalities, or arguments about the Human Rights Commission, the issue is the children. All of us as parents in particular know how anguished it must be for children to be in these circumstances.”
But despite this contradiction, Turnbull then returned to Party dialogue.
“The bottom line is this: one child in detention is one child too many. Everyone is anguished by having children locked up in detention. The best way for children not to be in detention is of course for them to not get onto smugglers boats and of course we have effectively ensured that by Scott Morrison stopping the boats.“
Meanwhile, the Refugee Council of Australia has released a scathing – and frankly damning and embarrassing – statement that includes data on Australia’s handling of children in detention centres, chiding both major political parties for the horrendous failures.
- Under the Rudd and Gillard governments, the number of children in detention reached a record peak of 1,992 in July of 2013.
- During the first year of the Abbott Government, that number fell from 1,078 to 603. But the average time children spent in detention ballooned out from 115 days to a shocking 413.
- As of January 31st, 2015 a total of 211 children remain in detention in Australian centres, with a further 119 in Nauru. Nearly all of them have been held for well over a year.
- The Forgotten Children report shows that the longer a person is held, the more severe their risk of significant physical and psychological trauma.
- Australia is the only country in the world to detain child asylum seekers as a first option.
- The conservative UK Government implemented legislation that ensures children asylum seekers are held in detention for an absolute maximum of seven days.
“The evidence is comprehensive, consistent and irrefutable. Disappointingly, the Australian Government has turned a blind eye to the report’s compelling findings and instead accused the Human Rights Commission and its President of orchestrating a political stunt.Rather than attacking the Australian Human Rights Commission for doing its job, the Government should be getting on with its own job: protecting the vulnerable children under its care. It should immediately introduce legislation to prevent the detention of children and ensure that this shameful policy is never repeated.”
And as the political bickering continues, it’s prudent to remember that, right now, there are at least 330 children being kept in detention centres, where they have been for over a year. And each day this pointless crap continues is another day stolen from them.
