Q&A: Labor MP Ged Kearney calls Peter Dutton punitive, awful over Nauru detention

Labor MP Ged Kearney has attacked the government for driving an agenda of ‘hate and fear’ over asylum-seekers.

Labor MP Ged Kearney on Q&A.

Labor MP Ged Kearney has labelled Immigration Minister Peter Dutton as “punitive and awful” by enforcing indefinite detention on the people of Nauru.

The new Member for Batman appeared on the ABC’s Q&A program and threw her support behind a former teacher from a refugee detention centre on Nauru who sent in a video question to the show.

In her video, Gabby Sutherland showed the panellists a photograph of a group of children living in the “open air prison” of Nauru, claiming the government failed to acknowledge they existed.

“Minister Dutton has repeatedly said he has released every child out of detention,” Ms Sutherland said.

“Well, here is a photo taken yesterday of just some of the more than 120 children, my former students, on Nauru.”

Ms Sutherland asked when the government would admit that the families incarcerated on Nauru “deserve freedom and a chance for a normal childhood”.

Despite acknowledging that the issue of Australian border protection was a highly political one, Ms Kearney said the time had come for the government to “own up to the fact there are children” on the island.

“To consistently say they’re not there, clearly that is not true,” Ms Kearney said. “I think it is distressing and indefinite detention is an appalling policy,

“For people to be retained without any hope of ever knowing when they’re going to move in to safety is appalling and it shouldn’t happen.”

When is the Government going to stop lying about children in detention? @gedkearney responds #QandA pic.twitter.com/D6Icc3G8Dm

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) May 28, 2018

She said a Labor government would act to more the children off the island as soon as possible, attacking Mr Dutton and the Turnbull government for driving an “agenda of hate and fear”.

“Peter Dutton knows ... he is being punitive and awful and there could be another three years of Peter Dutton as an Immigration Minister and I couldn’t stand it so we have to be careful,” she said.

“We have to increase our intake and Labor is looking at increasing our asylum seeker intake.”

Ms Kearney’s comments sparked outrage from fellow panellist NSW Liberal Senator Jim Molan, who argued the Labor MP had “totally misrepresented the situation on Nauru”.

“Those children are not detained on that island. Their parents made the decision to go there,” Mr Molan said.

“If you are saying we are not acknowledging the children are there, that’s plainly ridiculous. Of course we acknowledge they’re there”.

When he was asked by panel host Tony Jones if the children were free to leave Nauru, Mr Molan said, “of course not”.

“Of course they can’t leave the island unless their parents decide to go home,” he said.

“And we would be very happy with that”.

.@JimMolan believes keeping them there is a misrepresentation of the detention of children. @FrBower has encountered a new hopelessness in refugees #QandA pic.twitter.com/ALREckJMkf

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) May 28, 2018

Mr Molan said Australia accepts between 18,000 and 20,000 asylum seekers each year, with 32 leaving the island in the last five months alone.

“We take them out every single day,” he said.

“I have never met anyone in the (Liberal) organisation who has said, “Let’s keep them on Manus and Nauru forever.” That’s a total misrepresentation of the facts,

“One of the reasons why many of the others don’t go home is because naive activists are encouraging them to stay. That’s a decision they make”,

Outspoken Anglican Church rector Father Rod Bower said there are currently 137 children on Nauru out of 16,000 people in offshore detention and they were all living in a “hopeless situation”.

“Their mental health is deteriorating in awful ways. I’ve never encountered the type of hopelessness I encounter in these human beings. It’s a different type of hopelessness,” Fr Bower said.

He claimed the reason Australia’s asylum seeker policy had become so controversial was because the government insisted on “dragging people out of their homes at 5:00am and incarcerating them on islands”.

“Somehow or other we have given our politicians the message that there’s power in fear and that we can use fear to manipulate people,” Fr Bower said.

Mr Molan said bringing families back from detention centres increased the risk of “deaths at sea”, pointing to the 1,200 refugees who allegedly perished at sea during former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s time in office.

He claimed “very good people” such as Fr Bower had to accept the consequences of their naivety in pushing for more people to be brought to Australia.

“They could start this again and another 1,200 people could die,” he said.