The recommendations of Mary Crock and other childcare specialists, Psychologists and Psychiatrists should be upheld. I don’t want to learn of another little child like the one in Villawood who, 7 years on is still in receipt of medical and psychological care. Or little Naomi, born in Villawood, and by the age of 4 was banging her little head against the wall. Only then, due to public anger (including mine) she and her mother were released - to what? We don’t know, as too many were/are just pushed through the open door without money or anywhere to go. I hope this practice has stopped too! Then, if they are finally granted refuge via a permanent status, they were presented with a bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars. If the Coalition(with a few notable exceptions) had their way, this horrific practice would continue too. If the Senators don’t support the Bill to stop this, they should resign.

I wonder how the adults, particularly Peter Qasim? are going today. Or the young man who was on his own for years before he was finally released. Then, there’s the ones who were forcibly removed from this country. Those who were killed upon return to their homeland, just as they predicted. Shameful! As I and others have stated, we are responsible for many of the asylum seekers from Iraq and Afghanistan; and when we realize our silence while the US interfered with or invaded too many other countries, we’re responsible for those people too.

Sharmon Stone’s insistence, that it’s the ‘soft policies’ of the Rudd Government that’s responsible for the increase in desperate people seeking shelter is not only false, it’s cruel and destructive. She was the leader of the coalition people on the committee that at best agreed to the changes, and according to Senator Chris Evans, she initiated the changes relating to the Bill before the Senate - so she’s a liar as well! I don’t know of too many Iraqis (who are struggling for clean water, sewerage, and only have electicity for a few hours per day)or in particular Afghanis who sit in front of their TV over dinner, or read about Australia via their local newsagent. What rubbish! I wonder when was the last time many Afghanis even received a letter, let alone checked out what the latest ‘people smuggler’ was offering! Another 120 were killed by one US bomb a matter of weeks ago - no evidence of Taliban in the area, and mainly women and children among the dead and injured! We’re not stupid Sharmon - we know what’s going on!