Senator KIRK (1:05 PM) —I wish to raise today a matter of public interest. I am sure that many senators would be aware of the recently filed proceedings in the New South Wales Supreme Court by the parents of a young boy named Shayan Badraie. I would like to take this opportunity to send my best wishes to Shayan and his family. I would also like to present their story to the Senate today as an illustration of the practical impact that the government's inhumane refugee policy is having upon innocent children like Shayan.

Shayan was just six years of age when, instead of experiencing the excitement of starting school for the first time, he was witnessing riots, horrific suicide attempts and the use of tear gas and water cannons and enduring prison like conditions in the Woomera detention centre in my home state of South Australia. Shayan suffered these atrocities because the Howard government's policy on refugees gave him no choice. Doctors who treated Shayan have said that he was so distressed by life at the Woomera detention centre that, when his condition deteriorated to a point requiring his hospitalisation, he was so traumatised he was unable to eat or speak. Shayan's parents are seeking damages against the government and Australian Correctional Management for the devastating harm that Shayan has suffered as a result of the 2½ years he spent at the Woomera detention centre. Despite repeated calls by the Labor Party to release all children from detention, the government has chosen to ignore these requests, and it has been children like Shayan who have suffered because of it.

My commitment to this issue is well known. On Sunday, 19 October I released the third edition of Kids in Detention Watch, a newsletter that I publish in partnership with Tanya Plibersek, the member for Sydney. When we released that edition of Kids in Detention Watch in Adelaide I was pleased to have with me Nicola Roxon, the shadow minister for population and immigration, who spoke at the launch on this very important issue. The launch was intended to repeat the Australian Labor Party's public call for the new Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, Senator Vanstone, to take a different stance on children in detention from that of her predecessor, Mr Ruddock, and to make her first act as immigration minister the release of all children from Australian detention centres. I repeat that call here today.

The government must acknowledge the harmful effects that the current detention policy is having upon the mental and physical wellbeing of children like Shayan. Shayan's doctors have said that the illness and trauma he suffered was an inevitable outcome—that the government policy of mandatory detention made it impossible for them to provide this innocent little boy with the proper treatment he needed and that, despite their repeated pleas to the then Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, Mr Ruddock, to release Shayan from detention, he failed to heed their warnings.

Thankfully, the Badraie family were eventually granted refugee status and temporary protection visas; but their lawyer says that the ongoing trauma suffered by their son is a high price to pay for that asylum status. Clearly the government's detention policy is incapable of providing a healthy and proper psychological and physical environment for children. The illness from which Shayan and many other children like him are suffering is a national disgrace. Shayan's story was a tragedy that did not have to happen and must not be allowed to continue happening.

When Shayan's case went before the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission last year, the commission found that Australia's treatment of Shayan Badraie was in breach of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. If the New South Wales Supreme Court reaches similar conclusions to those of HREOC, it will be a damning indictment of the government's policy on this issue. What the lawyers for Shayan aim to establish is that the government and ACM, which was in charge of the Woomera detention centre, were negligent in the level of care they provided to Shayan and that their negligence was a significant cause of his illness. To establish this, the lawyers must show that the harm Shayan suffered was reasonably foreseeable. The findings of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission certainly indicate that this was the case.

Justice Michael Kirby of the High Court of Australia expressed similar sentiments during a recent hearing regarding children in detention. He commented:

The harmful consequences of imprisoning children behind razor wire is clear to the legal profession, clear to medical professionals, clear to the Labor Party and the minor parties and clear to ordinary Australians. Why then is it not clear to the government? These policies are permanently damaging children, most of whom have already endured terrible hardships and have come to Australia, the lucky country, through the choices of their parents. Instead of being offered the freedom and security from persecution that they were unable to enjoy in their homelands and that Australia is duty bound to provide to them under international law, we offer them indefinite detention in substandard facilities with little or no contact with ordinary Australian life.

The case of Shayan Badraie is just another sorry chapter in this government's appalling campaign to dehumanise and degrade some of the most vulnerable people in the world. The government cannot ignore this issue any longer. It must take responsibility for the damaging consequences of its refugee policy for innocent children such as Shayan. In concluding, I once again call upon the government and on the new Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, Senator Vanstone, to ensure that this government-sanctioned child abuse is put to an end and release all children from detention.