Dear Editor,
Christmas is a time for connecting with family and appreciating that we in Australia do have a lot to be thankful for. It is also a time to reflect on our good fortune and to consider those less fortunate than ourselves.
While there are many events in the world that are difficult to understand and even more difficult to attempt to influence there are some things, closer to home, that are easier to understand and that are within our ability to change.
For the past two years we have been hearing, from the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Abuse, about the long term impact of traumatising children. It is clear that any activity that traumatises children, be it war, domestic violence, physical and sexual assault, or substance abuse, creates ripples that affect the child for their whole life, and affects the whole of society.
We know this to be the case so it becomes our responsibility to act to prevent the abuse of children. One area of institutional child abuse that exists today, right now, is the treatment of asylum seeker children on the prison island of Nauru and in the immigration detention camps in Australia.
Let us be clear: these children have committed no crime and are in our care and are our responsibility. These children are escorted by military style Border Farce (sic) guards to and from school while their parents are treated as criminals and referred to by number. Now that school has ended they are not permitted to leave the detention prison camp.
A program run by a group of Catholic nuns that took children on outings from the detention centre in Melbourne was deemed "inappropriate" by the Australian Border Farce and stopped.
I encourage people to write to their local member and to let them know your opinions about the abuse of children. No child should be treated this way. Not in our care and not in our name.
Peter Sobey
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