By political reporter Anna Henderson
Friday 22 August 2014, 2:30pm
Photo: Scott Morrison told the hearing that the former Labor government should be questioned about its policies. (AAP: Lukas Coch)
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The Immigration Minister and the head of the Human Rights Commission have clashed over whether the Christmas Island detention centre is a prison.
Minister Scott Morrison and other key departmental officials have appeared before a Human Rights Commission inquiry into child detention in Canberra.
Commission president Gillian Triggs told the inquiry she saw little difference between locked detention and a prison.
"I have been a practising lawyer since I was 22 years old and I have been to many prisons. I know a prison when I see it," she said.
Mr Morrison questioned the comparison.
"You've been in prisons, so you are telling me that the Phosphate Hill compound on Christmas Island is the same as Long Bay jail?" he asked.
"I'm not saying they are equivalent," Ms Triggs responded.
Mr Morrison then shut down the line of questioning, saying: "We can move on, Madam President."
Morrison described 'moral burden' of policy decisions
Earlier Mr Morrison told the inquiry into child detention he could not allow his feelings as a father to get in the way of delivering the Government's tough offshore processing policy.
"As a parent of two young children, the emotional challenges of working in this policy portfolio are just as real and just as great as they would be for any other parent in my position," he said.
"But sentiment cannot be indulged at the expense of effective policy; that is, saving lives and ending the chaos and tragedy that was occurring, that many thought could never be turned around.
"That is my duty. There were always going to be costs. There is no decision that I, or any of my predecessors, take as a minister in this area that is not free of moral burden.
"Our decisions affect people's lives. It is a heavy responsibility that no minister carries lightly, regardless of their political affiliation."
Talking about offshore processing, he said "the Government is not going to allow a set of policies to be weakened that would see [an] Australian staring into the face of child corpse in the water again".
"The voiceless in this debate are the ones that are at the bottom of the ocean and who are in camps all around the world, [who] I am very pleased are now getting places under our program," he said.
Morrison asked: 'Do ends justify the means?'
In an exchange with Mr Morrison, Counsel assisting the Commissioner Naomi Sharp said the average length of time a child was held in immigration detention had increased substantially since the Coalition was elected.
"Is it your assertion that the long-term detention of children who are subject to the offshore processing regime is the price we need to pay for stopping the boats?" she asked.
Mr Morrison said more children were being released from detention under the Coalition.
"It is not my intention to have people there longer term, and I think I have made that clear in the course of this hearing," he said.
"It is my intention that should be as shorter period as is possible."
Asked "have the means gone too far to justify the ends?", he replied: "I saw too many children die in the sea not to pursue the policies I am pursuing."
Call for Labor figures to explain previous government's policy
In his opening remarks, Mr Morrison maintained that Labor's policies led to the high number of children in detention, and said the former government should also be questioned at the inquiry.
"This is an inquiry into children in detention as you have stated. However it could be more accurately described as an inquiry into children Labor put in detention," he said.
Should children be in detention?
In March ABC Fact Check investigated the legal responsibility Australia has for asylum seeker children under its care.
Ms Triggs said she would take Mr Morrison's suggestion about including Labor in the inquiry on board.
She called on Mr Morrison to produce evidence to prove the link between child detention and stopping asylum seeker boats.
"What is your evidence that holding children for now more than a year has an effect on stopping boats?" she said.
"What's the connection between using patrol boats and military force to stop boats and detaining children for very long periods, unprecedentedly long periods?"
Mr Morrison maintained the policy has worked to deter asylum seekers from trying to reach Australia.
"Frankly madam president, the results speak for themselves," he said.
"We are getting the results we said we would get."
But he questioned the suggestion Operation Sovereign Borders has a military focus.
"The Australian Government is not using military force in the way that you have outlined it. Operation Sovereign Borders is a civil operation," he said.
Commission previously heard of children health issue cover-up
The commission is investigating the impact of detention on the health, wellbeing and development of children.
It has already heard explosive allegations from a former director of mental health services at detention centre service provider International Health and Mental Services (IHMS).
Psychiatrist Peter Young claimed the Immigration Department tried to cover-up the scale of mental illness among child asylum seekers by asking for figures documenting the problems to be withdrawn.
Earlier this week Mr Morrison announced plans to move hundreds of children from detention centres and community detention onto bridging visas by the end of the year.
The changes would apply to children under 10 and their families on the Australian mainland.
But Labor has criticised the Coalition for refusing to extend the policy to children being held on Nauru and Christmas Island.
Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young says the timing of the Mr Morrison's announcement ahead of today's hearing is not a coincidence.
"He needs to explain why children are being made to suffer, why their childhoods are being destroyed and what actions he will take given the damning evidence that's come out in the inquiry already," she said.
The Government says there are 876 children in detention centres, a reduction of more than 500 since the last election.
Mr Morrison's office says at the end of July there were 1,547 children in the community detention program.
