The Forgotten Children – the report of the Australian Human Rights Commission's national inquiry into the impact of immigration detention on children – was released this month, three months after it was provided to the government.

The report makes for disturbing reading. Anyone who has read it will be left with one question in mind: why has Australia maintained a policy that medical and other evidence has proven beyond doubt causes severe damage to children?

Shooting the messenger: Both sides of politics are responsible for their treatment of children in immigration detention since 1992. Credit:Rick Stevens

Since the report was provided to the government last October, the commission has been subject to the criticism that it is politically biased. Why, critics have asked, did I as president begin the inquiry in 2014 and not six months earlier in July 2013, when the numbers of children in detention reached a record high. Why, it has been asked, did I not act earlier?

The answer is that the commission has worked tirelessly over many years reporting on the failure by both Labor and Liberal governments to comply with their international law obligations to refugees. In July 2012 the commission reported its findings of an inquiry into the treatment of asylum seeker children who were subject to mandatory detention as people smugglers. A number were held in adult prisons, on the basis of flawed age determination processes. The report revealed major concerns over how a number of government agencies dealt with these children. Over the subsequent months, significant changes to law and policy were made to address the concerns identified by the commission.