The outgoing administrator of Christmas Island says the apparent success of the federal government's `stop the boats' policy has come at too high a price.
Jon Stanhope, the former Labor chief minister of the ACT, made the comment after it emerged he would be succeeded on Christmas Island by retired Liberal backbencher Barry Haase.
"For some of us, there's no satisfaction in terms of the price that's had to be paid or the means that were employed in achieving that apparent success," Mr Stanhope told ABC radio.
"I think it's a deeply flawed philosophical position to suggest `well, here's the policy, this is the end and the means really are irrelevant' and I don't think they are.
"I don't accept that some of the means that are being pursued for stopping the boats, most particularly the indefinite detention offshore of people that came to Australia seeking asylum ... is a price that they should have been required to pay ... particularly children and families."
Mr Stanhope said he had seen hundreds of child asylum seekers in the Christmas Island detention centre since former prime minister Kevin Rudd declared in July last year that new arrivals would never be settled in Australia.
"It's quite possible there are children there that are now 15 months old that ... have spent the entire 15 months of their life in a detention centre," he said.
"I think we all need to just dwell on that and ask ourselves as proud Australians whether we feel proud about that."
Mr Stanhope said the most challenging part of his two-year tenure had been seeing the "massive gaps" in services available to locals on Christmas Island, which is not a self-governing jurisdiction.
Residents only vote at a federal level and receive services provided on contract by the West Australian government.
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