Ms ROXON (3:27 PM) —The Migration Legislation Amendment (Children and Families) Bill 2003 seeks to get kids out of detention before Christmas 2003. The Labor Party are determined to take all steps necessary to persuade this government that it is not appropriate for nearly 200 children to spend this Christmas in detention centres. Labor have been calling on the government to get children and their families out of detention urgently for nearly two years now. This bill is a further attempt of ours to force the government and this parliament to take this issue seriously.

When I was first appointed as Labor's immigration spokesperson, I said that getting kids out of detention was going to be one of my first priorities. Unfortunately, we still have nearly 200 children who are likely to spend this Christmas behind barbed wire, courtesy of the Howard government's immigration policy. Some of these children are held in detention centres in Australia and some of them are in Nauru. Most of them have been in detention for more than two years.

This campaign of ours, which calls on the government to get kids out of detention by Christmas, is not just a matter of the bill that I am introducing into parliament today. It is also harnessing a lot of community anger about the way children are being treated by this government. It is Labor's hope that this will engage politicians on both sides of the parliament, because we are aware that there are people in the government who are unhappy about the current circumstances of keeping children in detention. We hope that it will engage churches, schools and others in the community who have been advocating strongly for the government to do something about this. We believe that, since there has been a new minister appointed to the immigration portfolio, this is a chance for the government to reassess what it is doing and change its course of action.

Labor's bill to get kids out of detention by Christmas would compel the government to release all children from high-security detention in the following way: where children are unaccompanied, they should be placed immediately with foster families in the community; where children are accompanied by their parents, the children and their families should be placed in appropriate housing—and the bill sets out three options—in the community, in hostel accommodation or in alternate accommodation which has the security and amenity standards of the Port Augusta housing project. We specifically make clear in the bill that parents who pose any security or health risk should not be released, but we believe the government needs to show that parents would be such a risk. The current system makes an assumption that people are a risk, even though there is no evidence.

One specific issue which I know people will raise is the situation of the nearly 100 children that are held in Nauru. Clearly we in this parliament do not have sovereignty over the laws of Nauru. We cannot seek in any way through a parliamentary process to impose our wishes on Nauru, but it is Labor's intention that all children should be out of detention and, as many in this House would know, to end the Pacific solution, and therefore people would not be held in Nauru in any case. But we do note that the government rather than the parliament have the power to negotiate terms of agreement with Nauru; in fact, they did this very hastily when they asked Nauru to agree to detain people and to process their claims offshore. We urge the government to consider, in line with the proposal in this bill, amending the terms of their agreement with Nauru to ensure that children and their families in Nauru are treated appropriately.

Labor is very concerned at the growing evidence of the harm that is being caused to children who are being held in detention. This is ongoing harm which may damage their lives forever in the future. Whether or not their claims are successful, Australia should not be contributing to the damage that could be caused to these children. Labor has previously tried in parliament to amend the migration legislation to release children. I am ashamed to say that every government member, including the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, voted against it. Labor hopes that this time around some government members will put pressure on their own government to take account of the suggestions in this bill. Parents around the country want to be able to sit at the dinner table at Christmas and tell their own children that this is a lucky country to live in. The government needs to take the opportunity to act and to help get other children out of detention before Christmas. I commend the bill to the House.

Bill read a first time.

The SPEAKER —In accordance with standing order 104A, the second reading will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.