Kids in detention: new AHRC inquiry

First, the inquiry was instituted not to primarily solve the problem of children in immigration detention but in order to appease the human rights lobby after the long silence of the AHRC under the Labor government.

Second, the AHRC's relationship with the Immigration Department has recently broken down to such an extent that the AHRC special inquiry powers are needed to get access to basic information about the wellbeing of the children being detained.

This second scenario is what the AHRC President Gillian Triggs suggested in an interview with ABC program The World Today on Monday. However, Minister Morrison contradicted this by stating that his department continued to work with AHRC.

Finally a question that needs to be asked is what new facts are likely to be uncovered considering that the AHRC has no jurisdiction over Nauru and the one hundred and sixteen children who are detained there.

If the inquiry is only to consider information provided by the Immigration Department, public submissions from NGO's and former detainees it is not clear how it would be adding anything new to the 2004 report's findings and recommendations.

I can only hope that this new inquiry is not simply a cynical political exercise but that it will move us closer to a permanent end to the mandatory and long term immigration detention of children in Australia.