High profile Australian sports stars, actors and media personalities have come together in a slick television and online campaign with a simple message to the Australian government: remove children from immigration detention.

The movement "We're better than this" includes former Wallabies captain George Gregan, former Australian cricket captain Ian Chappell, journalist Ita Buttrose and businesswoman Janet Homes a Court criticising the incarceration of asylum seeker children, particularly in the offshore processing centre in Nauru and the detention centre on Christmas Island.

Ita Buttrose is one high-profile figure involved in the campaign. Credit:James Brickwood

Actress Deborah Mailman, author Tom Keneally, film critic Margaret Pomeranz, Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs and activist Gail Mabo also feature in the short one minute advertisements, while Bernard Fanning from Powderfinger has lent his musical skills to the production.

"I believe every child deserves a safe place to play," Ian Chappell says in the video. "I mean Christmas Island, it's a phosphate mine; it's dangerous and it's dirty and it's got to affect the health of children. We're better than this."