Oh dear ConservativeHippie, perhaps if I type a little slower it might help.

You wrote;

“Obviously I also failed to understand that reducing the number of children in detention to 200 over the past 18 months is far worse than having 2000 in detention for even longer under the open door Labor/Green policy.”

'having 2000 in detention even longer'? ? ?

What on earth are you talking about? They were in detention for a far less period than when the coalition began using lengthy incarceration as a deterrent. The 2000 was a total figure but it was constantly being renewed with throughput.

I repeat, the number of kids in detention for over three months tripled under the Coalition's punitive actions. That is a fact. That the cases of self harm rose as a result is a fact. Your are welcome to provide facts of your own and I'm happy to let them speak for themselves if they hold any water but as of now you have failed to do so. All you have done is regurgitate the Abbott government mantra, one that has gone virtually unchallenged by a compliant media. I don't have the capacity to pull up Ministers doing doorstops but I am able to show it for what it is here, crap. The attack on Professor Triggs makes it very clear they understand how destructive their actions have been.

I would thank you for not serving any more of their rubbish up here.

Dear SteeleRedux,

I find it very disturbing that on the international stage
Australia is leading the charge to tell other nations to
respect the independence of their national human rights
institutions yet in their own country their political
attack is designed to undermine our independent national
human rights warchdog. As various commentators have noted
this is bad enough in isolation but what makes these attacks
worse is they are part of a broader trend by the government.

Our independent watchdogs, our independent court system, our
rule of law, press freedom and the ability of non-government
organisations to speak freely are all vital to our democracy
and for the protection of human rights particularly as
has been pointed out earlier in the absence of a constitutional
or legislative Bill of Rights.

Since taking office the government has actively undermined these
protections.

That should matter to us all.

SteeleRedux,

We shouldn't be surprised that some here look beyond the Abbott govt's exquisite sadism in slowing down the processing of adult and child asylum seekers.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-23/triggs-detention/6083476

I believe the processing of men of on Manus was around 1% - if that.

The idea was not to process, but to incarcerate asylum seekers - the upshot being that if you take away hope and self-respect and neglect your charges, then the said asylum seekers would "go home" preferring any number of tortures to one they were receiving in the "processing centre" - or gulag as it became.

Why just the other day, an 8 months pregnant victim of FCM tried to harm herself after being refused the specialist care she required - told she could have her high risk birth on Nauru - or (wait for it) return to whence she came.

http://www.news.com.au/national/an-eight-month-pregnant-refugee-tries-to-harm-herself-after-being-denied-urgent-medical-help/story-fncynjr2-1227239083870

"Channel Ten’s The Project reported tonight that the woman, a Somalian refugee living in the Nauru community, was allegedly told by the Australian government that she had to choose between giving birth in Nauru — and risk her, and her baby’s, life — or return to Somalia, where she had been subjected to female genital mutilation."

(Wait for it - the kindly folk here will tell us that if she's been turfed out to the Nauruan community by Oz authorities, she should think herself lucky - and the oh-so-caring Oz authorities aren't responsible for putting her and her baby's life at risk)

Exquisite sadism...and these jokers here are attempting to paint the Abbott govt as caring and the victim of bias when the AHRC criticises both Parties for their actions.

This - on the misleading double-talk of Julie Bishop on the floor of Parlt.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/julie-bishop-admits-role-with-triggs-was-discussed-20150226-13q0nw.html

spare us your croc tears Poirot. Thre progressives have shown like Trigg they have no moral authority to lecture. Hyprocrisy they know not what it means. Do a little research on drowning Poirot something you conveniently ignore.

runner,

"spare us your croc tears Poirot. Thre progressives have shown like Trigg they have no moral authority to lecture. Hyprocrisy they know not what it means. Do a little research on drowning Poirot something you conveniently ignore."

Okay, you rather vacuous mock-Christian...let's get a few things straight.

We ALL KNOW that you couldn't give a hoot about "them thar foreigners drowning"

You merely employ it for your puerile flossy no-substance comments here - as if, with your gallons of hate speak, you think you can somehow convince us that you "care" about those lives lost iin desperation.

People are still drowning - it's just that Australia has made sure they don't do it anywhere near us - and who's to say what's going on up there. Morrison and now Dutton have a total block on information.

We'll catch up with that in the years to come - and then we'll find out the true extent of this govt's psychopathy.

You're about as Christian as my cat - except my cat doesn't jump onto OLO and rant hateful measly three-line run-by comments several times a day.

"Crocodile tears" is what you term concern for humans and their conditions...do you think people make perilous voyages to escape violence and torture like Aussies do on their annual shop-fest to Bali?

Why don't you post something of substance?

I mean - go on....

You're a light-weight tosser of light-weight thought bubbles.

at the end of the day, australians do not want too many migrants...period

yes, we can continue standing on high moral ground and talk about due legal process and children in DC or pregnant women in distress

australia really does not welcome migrants... at least not the boat category

professionals... educated ...well to do migrants, ok, we love them

the rest?

so let us stop kidding ourselves
we laid back ozzies are already sinking the country with the huge deficit and a welfare system that simply is not sustainable