Is this how a child guardian treats children? Or would?
Government agencies are particularly fastidious when it comes to approving guardians for children whose parents are unable to look after them.
You have to jump through more hoops than a circus pony.
For someone to be appointed the legal guardian for a child, there are some basic requirements:
You need to demonstrate that you have the child’s interest at heart.
You must also demonstrate that you are willing and able to provide for the child’s social, cultural, emotional and educational needs.
Under current Australian law, Minister Chris Bowen is the guardian for unaccompanied minors who apply for asylum in Australia. He has a duty of care to those children. But how well is he shaping up in that capacity? Is he protecting them and providing for these fundamental needs? The answer is manifestly ‘no’. Australia is the only country in the Western world where detention is mandatory for adults and children seeking asylum for the duration of their processing by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs.
Holding children in detention causes them harm. We know that.
The Australian Medical Association recently reiterated the position developed under my Presidency, with the current President Dr Steve Hambleton making it abundantly clear how the medical profession here views the situation:
“These are damaged people desperately seeking a new life in this country. They are often fleeing diabolical situations in their home country. They are well acquainted with fear and danger and desperation. Some of them have been through torture, some have physical health problems, and many will have experienced mental health pressures. Children are particularly vulnerable and the detention environment places enormous stress on them. Children often witness behavioural and psychological distress in adults, including their parents. They see violence and self-harm and they experience separation from family members. Unaccompanied children should never be placed in detention centres.”
No ambiguity there!
The current Immigration Minister Chris Bowen
My colleagues visiting the Darwin immigration detention centre report children under ten years of age attempting self-harm and children as young as four and five being part of hunger strikes. As I see it, the current system of protecting children in detention, with or without their parents, is inherently flawed. Actually, the concepts of ‘child protection’ and ‘children in detention’ are oxymoronic.
Here is where I see the problem. The Federal Government puts the Immigration Minister in charge of making it unappealing to get on a boat and head to Australia to seek asylum, and then makes him also responsible for ensuring the welfare of the children who arrive and are detained in conditions which will harm them.
Got that? The same person has to make conditions on arrival appear too horrible for asylum seekers to want to head this way; but then he is also responsible for ensuring the conditions for children are optimal for their social, cultural and educational development.
It is an unresolvable paradox.
So again I ask. Is the Minister protecting children who arrive as asylum seekers and providing for their fundamental needs?
You only need to look at the example of the now-scuttled plan to send unaccompanied children to an uncertain destiny in Malaysia. It was nothing short of culpable.
The actions of Minister Chris Bowen on behalf of the Australian Government, if applied to any other prospective legal guardian, would automatically disqualify him. But he is in an impossible situation. He cannot reasonably be expected to satisfy what his government and his portfolio demand of him.
The responsibility for the care and protection of these vulnerable children must be completely separated from the political manoeuvrings around the vexed issue of border protection.
Guardianship of children seeking asylum needs to be taken out of the hands of the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs and placed in the care of an independent but accountable agency capable of delivering fundamental human rights to this vulnerable group.
It should be an organisation able to demonstrate that they have the children’s interest at heart and are willing and able to provide for their social, cultural, emotional and educational needs.
And it should be done as a matter of urgency.
Is the Immigration Minister the right asylum seeker child guardian? If not, who should be?
Professor Kerryn Phelps is the former federal President of the Australian Medical Association and the current President of the Australian Integrative Medical Association and practising GP. Kerryn is also a social commentator and prominent LGBTI rights advocate. She’s a mum of three. You can follow her on Twitter here.
Comments
62 Comments so far
Fantastic article. Thanks MM team for continuing to give this issue prominence.
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No one said they where going to send children to Malaysia, that was Father No’s nagging, and tell some one something often enough they believe it, it’s called brain washing. Like pink batts, big tax, school halls.
No one mentions the Liberal who used government cars for his mates, Remember Turnbull, ruined gordon gretch’s life, while trying to dethrone, Rudd.
Julie Bishop, plagarising,
The WA farmers purchasing GPS, on their drought assistance,
People in glass houses, but, empty bottles make the most noise, watch parliment, and see Abbott, driveling on.
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I find the whole debate about asylum seekers to be driven by media sensationalism we are constantly bombarded by the media showing Tony Abbott saying that we must stop the boats and that the navy should turn them back, Allan Jones and his talk show cronies feeding on this rehetoric and we wonder why we have got the solution so wrong. The only political party wanting to deal with this issue humanly are the greens and the media is constantly telling us that they are a minor party with out a real mandate to dictate policy. The media needs to stop trying to gain ratings and provide a balanced portral of this issue. We voted for a minority government and we need to stop the calls for an early election and allow this minority government to get on with governing.
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Some good points there D but I can’t agree with the comment “We voted for a minority government…” We voted for our relevant member. Those members then got together and when no-one had a clear majority started the wheeling and dealing that makes up politics here in Aus. If you look at the figures the Coalition gained the larger share of the votes. It was only the cobbled together deals with minority parties that kept Labor in power.
The problem is, the ‘Minority Government’ doesn’t have enough common ground amongst itself to be able to govern effectively. The Malaysian ‘solution’ being a good example. If Labor had listened to its major partner (The Greens) they’d never have gone down that road.
I’m not suggesting the Coalition has the answers either. I just don’t believe a minority government will ever achieve anything of value in the current climate.
Sadly, in the long run, it’s the little people who will continue to suffer, and that includes asylum seekers.
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Sorry you feel that we didn’t vote for a minority government, but that is exactly what we did, and the reason that the Liberals did not gain Government was that they are led by Tony Abbott and not Malcolm Turnbull. Whilst I am normally a labour voter, I have voted for the coalition when Mark Latham was the Labour leader I would be happy to see Malcolm Turnbull as the PM because he is a decent human being and one I would be proud to say was our PM.
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I am sick and tired of this whole bloody debate. Instead of bleating daily about how the government has failed and how “ashamed” you all are of being Australian why don’t you all stop the bleating and let the government get on with trying to find an alternative. Kerryn Phelps, you’ve been crapping on too about the plight of these poor children but you haven’t come up with a plan except to say take the welfare of the kids away from the Minister. What about letting Child Protection Services or DOCS take over the responsibility? No, I wouldn’t think so, neither of those agencies has a track record they can be proud of. We would end up with little kids in a worse position than they appear (according to you) to be now. Well, here’s my idea – and at least I have one. There are plenty of reputable and established organisations such as Barnardos and Foster a Child Organisation to name two, who would be able to provide short term care for these kids. Get off the Mamamia website and on to your local members of parliament to try and get something rolling if you feel that badly about it. However, I suspect a lot of the aforementioned comments are just Aussies being too politically correct to say what they really mean. And I don’t apologise for the bluntness of my comment either.
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The heading of this article doesn’t read right….
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In what way?
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No it doesn’t does it.
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Excellent post, agree entirely. What I find so contradictory about this government is that they halted the live cattle trade to Indonesia due to real concerns about animal cruelty, yet at the same time were planning to send unaccompanied children to Malaysia with known human rights breaches. Are they saying human beings are less worthy of humane treatment than animals? They seem to be bending to whatever public pressure of the day is with no foresight at all.
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The problem with the live cattle exports, where the farmers where paying a levy of $5 a head of cattle sold, to the livestock board, to self manage their business as set up by the Howard gov. as he did the AWB, we all know what happened there, But Vaile and Downing signatures don’t count!
The same as the cattle trade.
Made sure all was well in the feed lots, swanning around in their RM Williams, Akubras and Mole skins, and all the time knowing full well what was happening in the abortoirs.
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Another classic from Annie!! Coherent as ever.
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I have what is probably a naive question, if we know where the boats are coming from can the Australian government set up a visa application “booth” & bring the assylum seekers over in on our own boats, place the people into supported community housing untill the applications are verified?
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Great, rational suggestion. Unfortunately neither of the major parties would ever think of it because it is sensible and humane.
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And would require a deal, at significant cost, with Indonesia.
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i agree completely… but im stumped, what can i do about it – who do i vote for or what can be done to let our govt know how i feel?
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Vote Greens – the only party with a humane asylum seeker policy. You can write to you local member of parliament. Here is a link to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre’s page titled “Ten Things You Can Do” http://www.asrc.org.au/what-you-can-do/
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i wholeheartedly agree with your sentiment that the greens are the only party that will give us a humane approach to refugees…
however, a vote for them is a vote against labor and therefore increases the libs chance of winning which means we will be even worse off as far as this debate is concerned.
i am stuck on this..
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Would’ve been good if Labor had realised there is a very real move to the Greens and their policies as being more left wing and responded in kind, huh? Instead we get Lib and Lib-lite and the excruciating shit that is going on at the moment. Woeful.
I voted Green (as did many, many people in my uber-safe Labor seat), Antony Green predicts it’ll go to the Greens at the next election.
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a vote for the Greens is a vote for an open borders policy, is that what you want?
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No.
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A wonderful article. I probably disagree slightly with just one point, though, and that is the description of the Minister’s position as an “unresolvable paradox”. I actually think its entirely resolvable. The imperative to ensure the welfare of children is a moral and legal one. The perceived need to make the reception so horrible as to deter future boat arrivals is purely political, and premised only on speculation. No matter how many times the government repeats its meretricious mantra of “breaking the people smugglers’ business model”, there’s no actual evidence that such an approach can or will do that. In fact, the historical pattern of boat arrivals more closely matches global patterns of refugee movements (surprise!) than changes in Australian government policy.
I’m not sure the location of processing, per se, matters. What’s really important is how people, including and especially children, are treated throughout the process. The one advantage I can see to an hypothetical regional processing centre is that it might remove the issue from the grubby realm of domestic politics, and perhaps allow boats to be intercepted earlier in the dangerous trip. If Australia could lead the way in developing such an arrangement in which we can be sure people are treated with dignity and compassion, it would be a fine thing. Unfortunately, to date, it has looked more like a way of abdicating our responsibilities.
I don’t think there has to be a conflict of interest in the Minister’s responsibilities. It could be resolved with just a little political courage. The government could use this decision by the high court to buy the time it needs to properly develop and implement a decent policy.
(PS: Prof Phelps, have you ever considered running for parliament?)
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The majority of asylum seekers have no idea that this debate is going on in Australia. They don’t see our news services, and even if they did there’s always going to be an unscrupulous people smuggler who will tell them that he has a ‘contact’, someone he can bribe to let them in. The smugglers don’t care if people actually make it in here, once the people are on the boats they have their money and that’s it!
More effort needs to go on international police work to catch the actual criminals BEFORE they con the refugees, and quickly, efficiently and humanely process the people who DO make it to our shores.
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Exactly. There are so many different elements to this issue. The simplistic spin our politicians have insisted on using in recent years is just deplorable.
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I would have thought it was pretty obvious that this is where she was heading. Won’t get my vote.
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I just called my MP to register my disapproval of any and all offshore processing. Easier than you’d think. Follow the Get Up link-
http://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/refugees/mondays-cabinet/nows-our-chance?t=dXNlcmlkPTM3MTY5NixlbWFpbGlkPTM0Mg==
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“For those who come accross the seas
We’ve boundless plains to share
With courage let us all combine
to Advance Australia Fair”
Kerryn Phelps, you rock. Your article is a model of clarity.
We have resposibilities as international citizens. The Government is accountable to us and to those it is legally obliged to protect – such as those seeking assylum. Right now – with every passing minute – the only “bipartisan” part of assylum seeker policy is that we are being abominably misrepresented by the left and the right side of politics. We need to wake up and shake ourselves out of apathy and see that many of the people seeking assylum are fleeing from the regimes we have sent soldiers to fight against. On one hand we actively send the message that we believe our way of life is so much better, our values so much stronger and our freedoms so much broader that we would fight against those who oppose them; on the other hand, when people flee those very same regimes we tell them there’s no room at the inn. Let’s hope none of us ever face the same conditions and require protection from a world with open arms.
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I love the national anthem reference – thank you!
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Hear Hear! Our government (and the opposition) are embarrassing this country and damaging our international reputation for human rights. Both sides of politics are currently disgusting me. I’m completely sick of their childish games, they are toying with democracy for their parties gain to a level that disgraceful. I just don’t see how so many Australian’s can’t see through all the crap. I don’t think I’ll be voting for either of them at the next election.
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Simone, I’m so there with you, every single step! They’re as bad as each other and voting for either of them seems like a really bad choice. Greens?
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The sooner the govt stops using detention centres and stops seeking to do ‘offshore processing’ (sorry, but people aren’t meat, can we stop using that phraseology already?) the sooner I wil start to feel proud of my country again.
The current mindset of the government and opposition embarasses me, and makes me feel like I live in a country of mean spirited ugly bigots, when I know we can be so much better than that.
Please, can we not change these policies to something that makes us feel proud? Close the detention centres. Forget about ‘offshore processing’. Welcome needy people into the community.
Be proud to be open, friendly, accepting, supportive, caring, and understanding. Be proud to open our doors to the ‘lucky country’ for those people who have endured so, so much. Be proud to show ourselves, new migrants, and the rest of the world, that our country is something to be proud of.
BE all the things we tell ourselves we are, but are not currently acting like we are.
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Ashamasha, your comment (“people aren’t meat”) made me think of the recent debacle involving live exports to Indonesia.
I’d like to know how come our government will step in within 24 hours of a 4 corners program showing cruelty to animals being sent overseas to try and protect the health of these animals, but on our own shores we’ll lock up little kids??
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true! the whole issue, and the terminology used, sits very uncomfortably with me….it’s also reminding me of concentration camps on a lesser scale …..very very uncomfortable with what’s happening in this country, unfortunately there is no politcal choice – both parties are playing ugly politics, and I don’t see any other parties coming in with a chance….
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The reason that the pollies lock up the children is as I said in my earlier post that we have allowed the media and particularly the talk show shock jocks to portray that the majority of Australians are horrified at the prospect of (what is a small percentage of our new arrivals each year) to come here by boat.
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I feel so ashamed of Australia on this issue. How can we get our message across that we want our Government to show some kindness and compassion to the assylum seekers? Especially for the children. I’m certain the majority of Australians would agree.
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I agree. I feel so helpless and that the voice of those who support the humane treatment of these people has been lost.
It’s awful. It’s a vote winner as people are so irrational about this issue. Unfortunately most people DON’T agree. They see Australia as theirs and boat people a threat to that.
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I just don’t understand why Australia can’t process all assylum seekers in the community.
What’s with dentention centres anyway? Putting vulnerable children and adults in what is essentially a gaol. On what planet is that a humane approach, or a good idea? It’s ludicous.
We need some serious leadership on this issue. It’s not coming from either side. And in the process? We’re using the most voiceless, vulnerable people as political footballs.
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These people risk their lives to come to our country. I have three young children, apart from loving them to death one of my main “jobs” is to keep them safe. I cannot imagine having to put myself let alone my children on one of those boats. It is amazing that they actually make it to Australia.
I am ashamed to call myself an Australian when we let children and families sit in jail all because they want a better safer life for their children.
My husbands family sold their $300000 house in Iraq for a bus fare to Jordan. They walked to Greece with two small children and a mentally handicapped Uncle. They have now been in Australia for 15 years. The parents worked two jobs each and the children now young adults are in uni.
They actually call themselves “lucky” as they didn’t have to go on a boat.
I think there are a number of organisations that could do a much better job at looking after these people. I think a combination of care, hospital,education,welfare need to work together.
But that would make sense and the Govt makes things a lot harder than they need to be.
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A worthy and necessary post from Dr Phelps, yet curiously, there is no critique of the opposition – which under Howard – sent our country down this callous and inhumane path, cultivating in our nation’s response to asylum-seekers, a culture of fear, hysteria and deliberate misinformation about asylum- seeking, refugee status, immigration, and boat-arrival vs arrival by plane.
The opposition is still scrabbling to justify its current position and policies which formed the basis for where we are now.
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Minister Bowen, his department, the PM and the government have been called to account with the High Court decision, and it’s plain this is a doomed government.
Let’s now turn our focus to Mr Abbott and the opposition, and demand of them a reasoned, humane and appropriate set of policies. If we don’t, unacceptable suffering will continue, and we -voters- wil have been complicit.
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I agree with everything you said about the Opposition but I suppose the reasoning behind focusing on the Govt is that, ultimately, they are the ones in power and it is up to them what they do next. But this is an argument not just about Chris Bowen but about all future Immigration Ministers. Whatever side of politics they come from and whatever their policies, this is not the right person to be responsible for unaccompanied minors.
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actually, it was gerry hand, labor minister under keating that introduced mandatory detention for everyone, including children
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A rational post amidst the scaremongering.
It troubles me greatly that what is a humanitarium issue has become a political one. Tony Abbott ran his last election campaign on “stop the boats as he kept telling us that is what we need to move our nation forward. How shameful as a nation that we treat human beings with such little compassion that the political point scoring is treated with higher importance than their needs. The labour government has been branded as inneffectual for implementing dodgy policy that was on the back of liberal policy. How short our memories are – 3 years ago we decried Howard and his pacific solution, now we are baying for it.
Please wake up Australia and instead of demanding politicians “stop the boats” lets instead call for a stop to mandatory detention and treat this as the humanitarium issue it is.
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That photo brings tears to my eyes, no child should have to even know or imagine what it’s like to live in a ‘cage’. This article was so clear and understandable, I wonder what is preventing the government from following the recommendations?
I don’t think there is a clear cut solution but I think we should start with the belief that all humans were created equal and we all deserve to be treated with dignity and with fairness. I think that will change some of the situation.
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I pity anyone who tries to argue against the intellect of Kerryn Phelps. This makes so much sense. The Govt needs to step up on this issue, and soon.
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I understand that England, for example, has provisions within their Child Protection system to meet the needs of unaccompanied minors. The Child Protection Act* (different in each state…why???) has the framework that allows intervention by the state if there is immediate, or imminent, risk of harm (physically, emotionally, sexually, and a provision for cumulative harm). And so, it appears as if the states would have avenues for lawful intervention, except that it contradicts the actions of a Federal Minister’s portfolio. A ludicrous political and beaurocratic contradiction that should have been exposed many years ago.
I applaud the rational argument here, by Professor Kerryn Phelps. I hope that her message resonates, and we can build some action in this regard. Australia’s treatment of refugees, but particularly minors is appalling and unforgivable.
On a side note, I have never felt comfortable with the description of people, especially children, as “damaged” (used in a quote by Dr Hambleton). I don’t think it acknowledges the individual nature of the experience of trauma and recovery. That’s just a semantic bugbear of mine….
*Not actually called this….named the Child Youth and Families Act (2005) in Victoria, for example, but it’s the same basic framework in each state.
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In years to come, we will have the issue of the Stolen Generation once more as these poor people look to compensation and apology for the appalling way they have been treated.
I believe the Government should be held to account on this issue.
Most of my friends, though, disagree with me. They believe that they are illegal immigrants and should be sent home. Many people have this view and the Govt has a battle on their hands.
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I totally agree with you and referred to this in my below comment – I really feel that this is going to be our national political embarrassment in coming years. Hell, it is already so embarrassing. We are the only western nation that does this? Appalling.
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I agree with your friends. They should be sent home and stand in line like everybody else. I agree with immigration totally, come throught the front door, not the back door.
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That’s such a simplistic argument though, don’t you reckon? I want to see a reality TV show for Australians: plonk them in utterly war torn countries with their entire family of, say, 15 relatives. Give them enough money not to eat well or survive but to scrape together passage for just two or three family members. Not all 15. Now put them under constant threat of death, sex slavery, mutilation, violence and give them an option. Try and make it out alive by going to the local airport or doing whatever it takes to ensure just some of them can make it out by whichever means necessary to a safer land like Australia.
Now, show of hands who would choose the ‘front’ door?
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It always strikes me as slightly contradictory that Australians will laud the Anzac spirit, usually involving a certain irreverence for authority as well as great initiative and courage. Yet we deplore those same characteristics in asylum seekers, seeming to look for those that suffer meekly in some mythical line til some distant authority deems fit to do something. Odd.
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those very contradictions of patriarchy and authoritarianism we apparently reject in other systems have been grossly inherent in the western prototype for the last couple of centuries… and it’s all starting to unfold rapidly in the advanced western liberal democratic nations, in many more arenas than just the immigration department. In fact if we choose to look (how few want to though), there’s a whole lot of hypocritical ideals and confronting ethical issues going on all over the place.
Very interesting times ahead for Australia and other countries.
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Indeed, Jane, just look at the situation in Britain, with almost open immigration. It’s working a treat over there.
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Hands up if you have read The Happiest Refugee? Australia has been created by migrants & refugees – Tony Abbott came here on a boat and spent a lot less than than those whose plight we are discussing right now. Our PM is also a migrant. Many successful people in Australia have come here with little or nothing and made great contributions to Australian Society. We are a big country – we are a lucky country – I wish them lots of lucky welcome.
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If we had legislation to ensure that no child, whether an Australian citizen or not, was permitted to be neglected or abused while on Australian shores, by their legal guardian or anyone else, then it wouldn’t matter if Bowen was their guardian or someone else was, as other state institutions would have powers to step in and care for the children.
Oh wait, we do have those laws, don’t we? So why isn’t Bowen being held accountable?
Another argument for why we need a commonwealth human rights charter, toot sweet.
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I have never read anything in my life, that made that much sense, about anything. What a great point. The government cant even sort out appropriate job descriptions, how can they possibly be good at the actual job!
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When I read this I was struck by how much it crystalised the argument in my mind too. I knew it emotionally, but this is such a stunning rebuke to anyone who says the Immig Min isn’t compromised in his duties. Love Kerryn’s mind.
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I completely agree that kids should not be in detention. However how do we prove the cut off age of a child? Is it 16, 18 or another number. These kids come without any documentation, how do we prove their age?
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legally I guess there would have to be a cut off – but heck how about we just treat them all fairly regardless of age – is that such a novel concept?
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Bone density scans can show age. But, you’re right, it would be an arbitrary cut off.
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Not accurately apparently.
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What an excellent post. The fact that we detain children and their families that are exercising their right to seek asylum in another country is awful. Especially given that we strut around the world feeling self-important about what a good democratic country we are on the world scale. If we want to truly reduce the number of people seeking asylum it should be because we cannot tolerate that other human beings are experiencing the kind of turmoil these people experience, not because they are ‘illegally invading’ ‘our country’. The logical way to do this is to work to prevent the circumstances that cause these people to flee. Anyone who thinks these people wouldn’t rather be living a peaceful and happy life in the place that they were born is simply wrong. So how about a policy that prevents the creation of asylum seekers in the first place instead of whacking the same tired old bandaid over the wound.
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Mia, as chief important person of Mamamia, I applaud you for not letting this issue go. Mandatory detention of minors is wrong. You don’t need to be a doctor or have any formal research on the issue to know in your heart that it is just immoral and plain wrong. Keep harping on about this issue and the refugee issue in general. We need to stand up for what is right so that a future prime minister/president will not have to do what Kevin Rudd did a couple of years ago and apologise for the wrong doings of past governments.
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