From HREOC website.....
Does Australia’s mandatory detention system breach human rights?
The Commission has consistently called for an end to mandatory immigration detention because it places Australia in breach of its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
The ICCPR and the CRC require Australia to respect the right to liberty and to ensure that no one is subjected to arbitrary detention. If detention is necessary in exceptional circumstances then it must be a proportionate means to achieve a legitimate aim and it must be for a minimal period.
The Commission accepts that immigration detention may be legitimate for a strictly limited period of time in order to obtain basic information about health, security and identity. However, under current practice, the detention of unlawful non-citizens is not an exceptional step, but the norm - and it is often for lengthy periods.
The Migration Act does not permit the individual circumstances of detention of a non-citizen to be taken into consideration by the Australian courts. It does not permit the reasonableness and appropriateness of detaining an individual to be considered by the courts. Australia is therefore in breach of its obligations under the ICCPR (article 9(4)) and the CRC (article 37(d)), which require that a court be empowered to order an individual’s release from detention, if appropriate.
For further information see:
* The Commission’s submission on the Migration Amendment (Immigration Detention Reform) Bill 2009
* The Commission’s submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Migration Inquiry into Immigration Detention in Australia (2008)
* A last resort?: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention (2004)
* Those who’ve come across the seas: Detention of unauthorised arrivals (1998)
Children’s rights
In A last resort? the Commission found that Australia’s mandatory detention laws led to numerous breaches of the CRC, including those provisions requiring special protection for child asylum seekers and refugees.
In particular, the Commission found that the mandatory detention system leads to a fundamental breach of a child’s right to be detained only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time. In addition, long-term detention significantly undermines a child’s ability to enjoy a range of other important human rights, for example the right to education and the right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
In 2005 the Migration Act was amended to affirm the principle that children should only be detained as a last resort. Children are no longer detained in high security immigration detention centres. However, children are still held in lower security immigration detention facilities and in community detention, as discussed above.
For further information see:
* The Commission’s report: 2009 Immigration detention and offshore processing on Christmas Island
* The Commission’s 2008 Immigration detention report
* A last resort? National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention (2004)
What the UN thinks
Big time. 
) show pretty positive results accross the board. Our economy (right or wrong) is crying out for lesser educated workers and educated alibaster Ozzy's wont stoop to jobs deemed menial, so there is a void that can pretty easily be filled there for a start.
