Australia news live: Anthony Albanese meets with Bill Gates; fresh claims about Banksia Hill mistreatment
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The campaign to bring a class action against Western Australia’s government over the treatment of children at Banksia Hill detention centre gathered momentum yesterday with a press conference making more shocking claims.
Stewart Levitt, a lawyer, said many of the children were often victims of intergenerational trauma, who needed support and education so they could become contributing members of society, Australian Associated Press reported.
“It’s not accepted in Australia, we just want to bash and hurt and punish and pretend that we can just consign these children to dungeons effectively, or treat them as vermin or pests,” he said. “That is a totally inhumane approach.”
Former president of the WA children’s court Denis Reynolds detailed the case of a boy who appeared in the court in November.
He said the 15-year-old suffered fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and multiple severe learning disorders.
A pediatrician recommended he be given a support program while incarcerated but he was instead locked in a cell for over 20 hours per day for 42 days straight due to alleged staff shortages, Mr Reynolds said.
The teen was also allegedly unlawfully transferred to the adult facility, Casuarina Prison, for 51 days and kept in solitary confinement.
“He attempted to commit suicide,” Reynolds said. “The premier and the minister are saying these are bad children behaving badly ignoring, deliberately, any reference to the unlawful treatment.”
Reynolds alleged premier Mark McGowan was misleading the public and the issue the government needed to tackle was the unlawful and inhumane treatment of children.
A former Australian of the Year, Fiona Stanley, said the WA government was ignoring evidence about the children that showed the current punitive approach at Banksia Hill would not work.
“They should understand that children are being born with brain damage [and they] should not be locked up in these circumstances,” she said.