This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jul/01/why-we-spoke-out-former-detention-centre-workers-explain
The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 2 | Version 3 |
|---|---|
| Why we spoke out: former detention centre workers explain | Why we spoke out: former detention centre workers explain |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Former staff who have worked in Australian run detention centres on Manus Island, Nauru and across the country have signed an open letter in defiance of new laws that will criminalise public disclosure of information about what is happening to asylum seekers in Australia’s care. | Former staff who have worked in Australian run detention centres on Manus Island, Nauru and across the country have signed an open letter in defiance of new laws that will criminalise public disclosure of information about what is happening to asylum seekers in Australia’s care. |
| Related: Detention centre staff speak out in defiance of new asylum secrecy laws | Related: Detention centre staff speak out in defiance of new asylum secrecy laws |
| Social workers, doctors, nurses, teachers, psychiatrists and other staff members across the country have all taken the unprecedented step of signing the letter in opposition to the new laws. | Social workers, doctors, nurses, teachers, psychiatrists and other staff members across the country have all taken the unprecedented step of signing the letter in opposition to the new laws. |
| Their decision is a departure from the status quo of silence in immigration detention centres at a time when the risks of speaking out are greater than ever. | Their decision is a departure from the status quo of silence in immigration detention centres at a time when the risks of speaking out are greater than ever. |
| Here, in their own words, 10 of these former staff told Guardian Australia why they have chosen to speak out. | Here, in their own words, 10 of these former staff told Guardian Australia why they have chosen to speak out. |
| Related: Open letter on the Border Force Act: 'We challenge the department to prosecute' | Related: Open letter on the Border Force Act: 'We challenge the department to prosecute' |
| Dr John-Paul Sanggaran, letter coordinator who worked on Christmas Island for International Health and Medical Services (IHMS) | Dr John-Paul Sanggaran, letter coordinator who worked on Christmas Island for International Health and Medical Services (IHMS) |
| There are significant barriers that are already in this place that deter people from speaking out about human rights abuses and substandard clinical care. And then you add an explicit threat of a two-year jail term and you prevent people acting in the best interests of their patients. | |
| There needs to be a message sent that this threat is not going to stop us speaking out for those who have a duty of care. And what needs to be asked is why there needs to be provision of a two-year jail term, unless there are things that the government does not want getting into the public. | |
| Alanna Maycock, Sydney based paediatric registered nurse who previously worked for IHMS | Alanna Maycock, Sydney based paediatric registered nurse who previously worked for IHMS |
| This act prevents nurses from fulfilling their duty of care. All healthcare workers have an ethical code of conduct and mandatory reporting obligations. If we did not report child abuse in an Australian healthcare facility, we could find ourselves subject to a disciplinary hearing at the very least. | This act prevents nurses from fulfilling their duty of care. All healthcare workers have an ethical code of conduct and mandatory reporting obligations. If we did not report child abuse in an Australian healthcare facility, we could find ourselves subject to a disciplinary hearing at the very least. |
| The Australian Medical Association, Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Australian College of Nursing, Australian College of Midwives and the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses have all opposed the new act. The nursing boards have requested that the act be amended, so that we have the ability to report any suspected acts of concern. They state “we consider it inconceivable that the government should seek to place us at odds with our obligations under the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency when delivering healthcare to people in immigration detention”. | The Australian Medical Association, Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Australian College of Nursing, Australian College of Midwives and the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses have all opposed the new act. The nursing boards have requested that the act be amended, so that we have the ability to report any suspected acts of concern. They state “we consider it inconceivable that the government should seek to place us at odds with our obligations under the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency when delivering healthcare to people in immigration detention”. |
| Not only does this put us in an extremely difficult position professionally, the act dictates what we can and can’t say and I feel this is leading us into really dangerous territory as a nation. | Not only does this put us in an extremely difficult position professionally, the act dictates what we can and can’t say and I feel this is leading us into really dangerous territory as a nation. |
| Dr Steve Brooker | Dr Steve Brooker |
| In a democratic society I have the right to speak out as an informed citizen if I feel that there are issues of public concern. To threaten me with two years in jail for doing so directly undermines this principle and undermines our democracy – medical professionals, whatever their discipline, have an obligation towards the people in their care that requires us to speak up when there are issues of concern. | In a democratic society I have the right to speak out as an informed citizen if I feel that there are issues of public concern. To threaten me with two years in jail for doing so directly undermines this principle and undermines our democracy – medical professionals, whatever their discipline, have an obligation towards the people in their care that requires us to speak up when there are issues of concern. |
| Our codes of conduct and ethical integrity should be protected, not threatened, as these are checks and balances in the system protecting patients, clinicians, administrators and policy makers. | Our codes of conduct and ethical integrity should be protected, not threatened, as these are checks and balances in the system protecting patients, clinicians, administrators and policy makers. |
| We follow due processes and procedures but if these are inadequate then they have no other alternative than to raise issues in other, more public, forums. To threaten us with legal action for doing so will create a system where significant abuse will become a certainty – protection of child rights can only be maintained when clinicians retain our rights. To lock up doctors or nurses for speaking out is an abuse of medical professions. Governments may not like what we say but we should retain the right to say it. | |
| Dr Peter Young, former director of mental health services at IHMS | |
| This should be treated just the same as any other health issue; the government wouldn’t politicise discussion of harms from cigarette smoking or asbestos. It is unimaginable that they would pass laws that stopped doctors talking about, advocating for patients or reporting on these issues. | |
| Governments have chosen to follow policies that harm the mental health of asylum seekers; it is simply medicine’s obligation to advocate against harm to health and individual doctors’ duty to advocate for the health of their patients. The fundamental ethics, independence and integrity of the medical profession is undermined by the Border Force Act. It is an unjust law that should be resisted. | |
| Viktoria Vibhakar, former senior child protection work for Save the Children on Nauru | Viktoria Vibhakar, former senior child protection work for Save the Children on Nauru |
| I am signing this letter because this act prevents me from upholding my ethical obligations under the Australian Association of Social Workers code of ethics. This act makes it illegal for me to report inadequate responses to child abuse by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) or its commonwealth-contracted providers to independent bodies if DIBP refuses me permission to do so. To require the DIBP to grant permission before professionals are allowed to report DIBP’s inadequate institutional responses restricts accountability and places children at risk of continued harm. | |
| Child abuse on Nauru was first publicly reported in an anonymous submission (#183) to the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). Prior to this submission, despite evidence provided to the AHRC; child abuse was never disclosed. We now know there were multiple incidents of abuse that had occurred by the time these organisation gave evidence but they chose not to report it. | |
| The employees who made this submission to report previously unreported child abuse to the AHRC would have been subjected to two years’ jail under this law. Or the authors would have needed to seek permission from DIBP to write it. | The employees who made this submission to report previously unreported child abuse to the AHRC would have been subjected to two years’ jail under this law. Or the authors would have needed to seek permission from DIBP to write it. |
| Professor David Isaacs, consultant paediatrician who worked on Nauru for IHMS in December 2014 | Professor David Isaacs, consultant paediatrician who worked on Nauru for IHMS in December 2014 |
| I am signing the letter because it is a basic principle that healthcare professionals and teachers should be able to speak up about institutional conditions that are inherently harming children in their care and will continue to harm them as long as the conditions persist. To prevent open discussion by threatening imprisonment is a characteristic of totalitarian regimes. | |
| Dr Alison Bleaney, medical practitioner who worked for IHMS on Christmas Island | Dr Alison Bleaney, medical practitioner who worked for IHMS on Christmas Island |
| I am signing this letter as I feel as a medical practitioner previously employed by IHMS on Christmas Island and engaged to work to Australian standards I have a duty of care to my patients and a duty to report any child I feel is at harm from others behaviour and treatment of them. This duty is dictated not only by my professional registration but also by moral and ethical standards. | |
| Professor Caroline De Costa | Professor Caroline De Costa |
| I have made several visits over the past 18 months to Darwin detention centres where I have met many asylum seeker women and their families. I have also met many asylum seekers now on temporary visas within the Australian community. I have received much corroborated information from all these people. | |
| The well-documented appalling living conditions on Nauru, and the experience of enforced indefinite detention, are unacceptable not only for children but also for pregnant women, whose physical and mental health depends on the quality of their environment as well as on medical care. I believe that Australian government policies are putting at risk not just existing children but those in utero as well, and I believe I should speak out about this. That is why I have signed this letter. | |
| Dr Hasantha Gunasekera, general paediatrician who provided specialist services for IHMS on Nauru in September 2014 | Dr Hasantha Gunasekera, general paediatrician who provided specialist services for IHMS on Nauru in September 2014 |
| The royal commission into institutional child sexual abuse is detailing many examples of past inaction in the face of child abuse reports. Australians who were horrified by this lack of action need to ask themselves what they are going to do now in the face of continuous reports of child abuse in Australian detention centres happening right now. | |
| The federal government, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and their health services contractor – International Health & Medical Services – have never denied these reports. Yet these centres remain in place. Inaction and legislated imposition of silence on us is not the right response. | |
| Dr Grant Ferguson, general practitioner specialising in paediatrics who previously worked for IHMS on Christmas Island from July to November 2013 | Dr Grant Ferguson, general practitioner specialising in paediatrics who previously worked for IHMS on Christmas Island from July to November 2013 |
| Many health professionals have spoken out against mistreatment of asylum seekers within our detention centres despite the threat of legal action from breach of intimidating confidentiality agreements. The Border Force Act is yet another attempt to intimidate health professionals into keeping the abuses of their patients a secret. But the government cannot pick and choose which of our codes of ethics they would like us to uphold while working in their detention centres. The patient will always come first and we will always have a duty to speak out when they are being mistreated. | |
| If you want to join the discussion, comments are open on the main news story | If you want to join the discussion, comments are open on the main news story |