Refugee advocates have condemned a controversial speech by Gilmore Liberal MP Joanna Gash in which she claimed child asylum seekers frolicked happily behind bars in detention centres under the Howard regime.
Addressing Federal Parliament in support of the Coalition's controversial offshore processing policy, Mrs Gash recalled a tour of detention centres she took as part of the Howard administration, where she was "nothing short of impressed" at what she found.
"Behind the high fences were green fields where children were running and playing," Mrs Gash said.
Gash flat out to gain hold in new territory"They were given new shoes and clothes if they needed them, access to dental and health care, internet access … (and) kosher food if they had such dietary requirements."
According to the Refugee Council of Australia, Jewish refugees have not been held in Australian detention centres since 1948.
Mrs Gash also expressed concern at the cost of providing for the "thousands" of refugees arriving on our shores, when many of her constituents were "doing it tough".
"I still have many pensioners who live in terrible conditions, and we have many homeless and a waiting list for dentists and hospitals," she said.
"At the risk of sounding callous … it is a sense of fairness that motivates me to speak up."
Her comments came two weeks after Opposition Leader Tony Abbott unveiled an apparent return to the Howard-era "Pacific Solution" should it win the next election.
Under the Coalition plan, asylum seekers would be kept in offshore detention centres while their protection claims were processed, and the contentious temporary protection visa scheme would be revived.
Mrs Gash's speech drew strong criticism from the Refugee Council of Australia, which described it as "misleading".
Spokeswoman Kate Gauthier questioned Mrs Gash's idyllic picture of life behind the razor wire.
"One would have to question how long you can keep a person satisfied with volleyball and soccer and nothing else if they are in detention for many months," Ms Gauthier said.
She also cast doubt on Mrs Gash's claim that the arrival of refugees over the past three years had contributed to a shortfall in health and welfare services.
A spokesman for Federal Immigration minister Chris Evans dismissed the speech as "misinformation".
"Any attempt to suggest asylum seekers who arrive by boat are a threat to Australia's pensioners and public hospitals is irresponsible fear mongering which has no basis in fact," he said.
He denied her claim that the number of humanitarian visa holders in Australia had increased under the Rudd government.
Mrs Gash said her comments reflected those of her constituents.
"I feel ashamed when I see the conditions of pensioners and the elderly compared to asylum seekers (in detention)," she said.
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