It was published in The Courier on March 16, 2002. One demand was "in the meantime immediate steps should be taken to stop flouting U.N. guidelines which, among other things, forbid detention of children seeking asylum".

I joined the Ballarat Refugee Support Network and began writing letters to the editor of this paper, politicians and asylum seekers in detention centres.

Recently I joined the newly formed Ballarat group, Grandmothers Against Detention of Refugee Children.

One of my first letters to The Editor ( August 1, 2002) concluded with this paragraph: "The question is, how much suffering do most Australians want to see inflicted on our asylum seekers before they are satisfied enough to tell our government it has gone too far?"

Thank you Dr Gillian Trigg, president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, for your report, The Forgotten Children released after an inquiry into the effects upon children held for lengthy periods in immigration detention.