Tony Abbott on The Forgotten Children: Scott Morrison deserves a congratulation note

A HUMAN Rights Commission report has savaged the government today, but the PM says his minister deserves congratulations.

TONY Abbott has savaged a report into the detention of children saying he felt absolutely no guilt about their situation.

Instead he said the Human Rights Commission should send his former immigration minister a note of congratulations.

Mr Abbott’s comments follow the release of the commission’s report The Forgotten Children, National Inquiry into Children, in Immigration Detention which revealed heartbreaking stories of children in detention. The report was tabled in Parliament last night.

In an interview with 3AW this morning, Mr Abbott said the commission should be ashamed of itself and that its report was a “blatantly partisan” and political exercise.

He said the commission should acknowledge the government for stopping the flow of asylum seeker boats and dramatically reducing the number of kids in detention.

“I reckon the human rights commission ought to be sending a note of congratulations to Scott Morrison saying well done, mate,” Mr Abbott said, referring to the former immigration minister.

Asked if he felt any guilt about the remaining 200 kids still in detention, Mr Abbott was blunt: “None whatsoever.”

“The most compassionate thing you can do is stop the boats,” he said.

He said the only way to ensure there were no children in detention was to ensure there were no boats arriving.

Numbers of children in immigration detention peaked at nearly 2000 in mid-2013 under Labor. There are now only about 200 children still detained.

The new Australian Human Rights Commission report has called for a royal commission into children in detention.

“The human rights commission ought to be ashamed of itself,” Mr Abbott said, when asked about the report.

“Where was the human rights commission when hundreds of people were drowning at sea?

“Where was the human rights commission when there were almost 2000 children in detention?”

The commission’s 10-month inquiry found prolonged immigration detention caused significant mental and physical illness, while hundreds of assaults and 128 cases of self-harm were reported between January 2013 and March 2014.

It also uncovered 33 reports of sexual assault.

Asylum seeker children pictured in detention in Port Augusta.

THE REACTION:

The commission’s 10-month inquiry found prolonged and mandatory detention caused significant mental and physical illness and also called for a royal commission into the detention of children, labelling it a clear violation of international human rights law.

In response to the report, Attorney-General George Brandis said in a statement: “The government is disappointed and surprised that the Australian Human Rights Commission did not start this inquiry until 2014, considering the problem was at its most acute prior to the 2013 election.”

Speaking at a press conference this morning Professor Triggs rejected claims the report was politicised and said both sides of government were to blame for the ongoing situation and trauma children in detention experienced.

Professor Triggs said both Labor and the Coalition had also ignored their stated commitments and legal obligations to protect children in their care.

She said it was not illegal to seek asylum and called on legislation to be enacted so children were detained for a strictly limited time.

Under international and Australian law, children are supposed to be detained only as a measure of “last resort”.

Children are forcibly moved from Charlie Compound to Bravo Compound taken from video footage provided by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.

“Detaining children does not stop the boats, or the tragic drownings at sea,” she said, while noting asylum seeker numbers had only declined because boats have been forcibly sent back.

Professor Triggs said the report was not a political exercise and it simply spoke for itself.

Video footage forms part of the damning report by The Australian Human Rights Commission.

WITCH-HUNT:

Current Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has denied suggestions the government had mounted a political witch-hunt against the commission and its boss, Gillian Triggs.

Mr Morrison also suggested there were political motivations behind the timing of the report.

“I think the Australian people aren’t mugs — they can make their own conclusion about all this.”

Mr Dutton denied the government’s tactic was to discredit the report by attacking Professor Triggs.

The government has pledged to remove children from onshore detention, and has already taken all kids off Christmas Island. Mr Dutton said the report was “historically” representative of the detention system under the previous Labor system.

Labor defended the commission.

“I absolutely, completely reject the idea that the commissioner and her work has been political, and I think that’s a deeply unfair aspersion on Gillian Triggs,” opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles said.

A child’s drawing taken from the report The Forgotten Children: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention 2014 by the Australian Human Rights Commission.

THE STORIES:

Among the stories to emerge from the report was a deaf family who had been in detention both on Christmas Island and in Darwin.

They revealed their hearing aids had been damaged during the journey over and they felt isolated as they were unable to communicate with others or hear their baby cry. They were given hearing aids seven months later.

The report also describes how children are woken every day at 11pm and 5am by guards shining torches into their faces as they conduct headcounts and noted toddlers being toilet trained in filthy conditions.

The drawings in The Forgotten Children: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention 2014 speak for themselves.