He's been Australian of the Year for just a day, but acclaimed psychiatrist Professor Patrick McGorry has spent it embroiled in controversy. Professor McGorry accepted his award, and then touched off a new row on the politically volatile issue of asylum seekers by pointing out the mentally corrosive effects of Australia's detention policies. He woke to find newspaper headlines declaring it an attack on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on the issue.
MOTTRAM: Australians have long prided themselves on the 'fair go' and frank speaking. So it should perhaps have been no surprise to the Australian government that this year's Australian of the Year, internationally renowned psychiatrist Professor Patrick McGorry, would speak about the mental health implications of 15 years of detaining asylum seekers.
McGORRY: The detention centres were, you could almost describe them as factories for producing mental illness and mental disorder.
MOTTRAM: Immigration detention had been an "absolute disaster" that Australia must not repeat, Professor McGorry said, citing research in such august journals as The Lancet and adding that he was talking about previous policy. But his reference to past practices was not enough to prevent major newspapers from splashing headlines like: "Australian of the Year attacks Rudd over refugees".
At a time the Professor was especially empowered to sell his message about continuing shortfalls in mental health policy in Australia generally, he was having to clarify his immigration detention views.
McGORRY: I actually said that the Rudd Government was doing an excellent job of digging us out of a very deep hole, they may not have got to the top of the hole yet but I was trying to encourage them to keep going and I certainly wasn't critical of the present Government's policies. The direction of them is very good.
MOTTRAM: The Professor managed to briefly stop the Prime Minister at yet another Australia Day event to explain his comments. And while Mr Rudd was reassuring, it's unlikely the government will have welcomed a new spotlight on the contentious issue. The Opposition leader, Tony Abbott, deflected the Professor's criticism of immigration detention as applied under the previous government of which Mr Abbott was a member and will doubtless feature in another day's newspaper and television coverage of the issue.
ABBOTT: The pity of the current government's policies is because they've sent the wrong signal to people smugglers, you've got more people coming, you've got more people in detention and you 've got more people who give rise to the kind of concerns that Professor McGorry has expressed.
MOTTRAM: Those pressing a human rights based view of the issue, like the Australian Greens, seized the chance to stress that while other remote detention centres have been closed, the Rudd government retains the centre on Christmas Island, that's now almost full.
HANSON-YOUNG: They are inappropriate facilities. And we must not forget that there are also children detained there. So the impact on their mental health is quite severe.
MOTTRAM: The Immigration minister Chris Evans, also at a noisy Australia Day ceremony, defended the government's efforts to protect the health of detainees, particularly attempts to speed up processing times.
EVANS: One of the reasons its been proven to be more dangerous if you like than prison sentences is that people don't know when they're going to get out. They've got no idea how long they were to be kept there. That was the system under the Howard government. We've vastly improved the detention facilities, the support they get and the processing times and so I think we've got the balance right.
MOTTRAM: But after his initial embarassment at coverage of his remarks Professor McGorry, who's particular specialty is youth mental health, continued to speak to the media about immigration detention and its impact on those who've often already experienced torture and trauma. And he says he wants to visit the Christmas Island facility during his tenure as Australian of the Year.
-ABC RADIO
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