151 is the figure that matters in Budget Week

10 May 2004

When the Human Rights Commission announced an inquiry into whether children should be kept in immigration detention centres in November 2001, no-one thought:
· It would take two and a half years to make its report;
· That some of the children that were in detention at the beginning would still be there at the end;
· That the Government would try and bury the report by tabling it in Budget week; or
· That there'd still be 151 children in detention when the report is released.

One day this week, or at least in the next 15 Parliamentary Sitting Days, Attorney General Philip Ruddock will release the report that has been presented to him, a thorough inquiry into treatment of children and the legal basis or rationale for putting hundreds of children through what child psychiatrists have described as institutional abuse.

"Unfortunately Philip Ruddock has a lot of form in dismissing reports, as he has done with the numerous condemnations of the child detention system from churches, doctors, judges, the UN and a host of international bodies, said Mr Howard Glenn, National Director of human rights organisation A Just Australia.

"We are all used to hearing excuses like : 'it was long ago, it's out of date, there's errors in the report, who really wrote the report, it's an exaggeration - who are these people anyway, it's not our fault'.

"Well there are more than 151 children in immigration detention this week - 70 on Nauru for the whole time the report was being written, and still there today. 27 are detained in Port Augusta, 36 in Villawood, 16 on Christmas Island and 2 in Melbourne.

"The media still can't visit them, and for many of them, neither can their lawyers.

"We've just seen what a reaction there is to institutional abuse when the pictures get out - and many of us recall the reaction when the smuggled film of Shayan Badraie was played on Four Corners in 2002.

"In the swill of figures coming out this week, I hope that people reflect on the moral deficit that this number 151 represents to Australia", Mr Glenn said.

For further information: Howard Glenn - 02 9310 3900

10 May 2004