May 26, 2005
The Age

The Federal Government had made no changes to immigration laws after a damning report by Australia's human rights watchdog said that the rights of children in detention were being breached, a parliamentary committee was told yesterday.

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's investigation into children in detention found multiple breaches of their human rights and a failure to consider their best interests.

The report, released last year, said children locked in immigration detention were exposed to tear gas, riots, fires, water cannon and mass self-harm.

But Immigration Department head Bill Farmer told a Senate estimates inquiry yesterday there had been no formal changes to the system after the report.

"We have had no specific directions from the minister about the HREOC report," he said.

"However, I think it's also true to say that in looking at our operations, we of course are looking to improve the way we manage detention for everyone all the time.

"In terms of the department's approach, did we learn lessons from the HREOC report? Yes we did.

"We also learnt lessons from our own operations and if there's an idea that we think should be implemented we will look at that seriously and do what we can to implement it." Mr Farmer was asked to give examples of any changes but took the question on notice.