Kiwi detainees 'ready to riot'

APPALLED: Te Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis leaving the Christmas Island detention centre after five hours with New Zealand detainees. PICTURE/SUPPLIED

Te Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis has berated Australian authorities for the plight of hundreds of New Zealand detainees in Australia prior to deportation, and Prime Minister John Key for failing to defend the rights of New Zealand citizens.

Speaking on his return from Christmas Island, Mr Davis said the detainees he had met were angry, hungry, scared, traumatised, and ready to riot if that was what it took to took to draw attention to their situation.

"The incarceration of these men is a blight on Australia. The lack of action from New Zealand's government is a blight on us," Mr Davis said.

"The detainees are separated from their families, legal representation, adequate medical attention and justice. Their situation is exacerbated by the tyranny of distance.

"New Zealand must not support Australia's bid to join the United Nations' Human Rights Council until all detainees are released from the detention centres. To support such a bid would mean New Zealand is complicit in, and condones, the daily abuse."

His visit to the Christmas Island detention centre had been a "typical show of public relations by numbers," he added.

"We were welcomed by friendly, smiling Serco staff, given bottles of water, even a free lunch from the Border Force [Australian Immigration] boss. He was polite and answered questions. However, his answers sugar-coated what is going on.

"The detainees, who we met two at a time and were brought in from different units around the detention centre, told consistent stories. They described being traumatised by their experiences, depressed at their situation, angered by the unfairness of it all, fearful for their families and futures. Despair and hopelessness overwhelm them, and many are pushed to the brink.

"They are called the 501s, because s.501 of the Australian Migration Act legalises what is happening to them. That Act was designed to address the threat of terrorism. Our boys I met with are not terrorists, nor are they murderers and sex offenders. I've seen scarier-looking guys out the back of my marae peeling spuds and opening kina.

"That they are more than just blokes who have done time for low-level crime is a blatant lie by the Australian Minister of Immigration to justify his draconian regime. Many asylum-seekers and other ethnicities have been transported back to mainland Australia, while Christmas Island fills up with Maori and Pacific Island Kiwis. It stinks of racism, and New Zealanders are the target.

"If the government supports Australia's bid to join the United Nations' Human Rights Council, New Zealand will have turned its back on New Zealand citizens who need their help."

New Zealand's Foreign Affairs had not been in contact with any New Zealand detainees, while Mr Key had washed his hands of any responsibility for the people he was meant to represent.

"He does not have the moral fibre to stand up to his new friend, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, and resolve these human rights abuses against his own citizens," Mr Davis concluded.