Asylum seekers will continue to be held in Australian detention centres despite Australian of the Year Professor Patrick McGorry's calling them "factories for producing mental illness", Deputy Prime Julia Gillard says.
Speaking in Melbourne, Ms Gillard said it was good that Professor McGorry's comments had sparked "a conversation" about mental health but the federal government was not always going to agree with his opinion.
"Obviously, Mr (sic) McGorry has got his views on immigration and mandatory detention," she told reporters in suburban Melton following an Australia Day citizenship ceremony.
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"The views of the government are clear. We believe mandatory detention is necessary when people arrive unauthorised, for security reasons, in order to do health checks and in order to check identity, and we will continue to have a mandatory detention policy.
"Mr McGorry, as Australian of the Year, is there in a very special role which enables him to engage in community debate, and so he should.
"We're not necessarily going to all have the same views at every part of that conversation."
Professor McGorry on Monday called for asylum seekers to be allowed to live in the community, instead of being sent to detention facilities on Christmas Island.
But on Tuesday he said the federal government was digging the nation out of a hole created by past leaders when it come to the handling of asylum seekers.
