Scott Morrison says 'two versions' of asylum-seeker children's mental health
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Version 0 of 1. The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, has answered allegations, made in the Human Rights Commission inquiry last week, that the government had tried to cover up asylum-seeker childrens’ mental health statistics, saying there always had been two versions of meetings. Morrison said his departmental secretary, Martin Bowles, would be writing back to the human rights commissioner Gillian Triggs about how mental health issues were reported but that it was important not to “leap ahead” with conclusions before the inquiry had finished. “In these meetings there is always two sets of versions of what has occurred,” Morrison said. “What they’re working through is a process to get the best possible reporting of mental health in these facilities… “It’s important, with this inquiry, that we don’t leap ahead and make a whole bunch of conclusions until that inquiry has been able to go through all its evidence, and that evidence can be properly tested.” On Thursday, Peter Young, a former medical director for mental health for IHMS, the private healthcare provider in immigration detention, told the inquiry that data presented to the department within the past two weeks had received a “negative” response and that the department had “asked us to withdraw the figures from our report”. Dr Young gave evidence that a significant number of children in detention showed symptoms of emotional distress and that he was aware of cases of self-harm, including poisoning attempts among children. Morrison told the ABC’s Insiders program that he was troubled by the evidence but he said the government was already acting to provide support and facilities, ensuring children were not sent to facilities, as well as “stopping them getting on boats in the first place”. “There are 450 less children in detention today than when I became minister,” Morrison said. “Now, the job is not done. I still have 550-odd children who are in mainland detention and it is my job to get them all out as soon as I possibly can.” The government is also facing criticism for its handling of 157 asylum seekers, including 50 children, who were recently moved to Nauru, via the Curtin detention centre in Western Australia. The Tamil asylum seekers, who came from India and were the subject of a High Court case, were held at sea for three weeks. |