Just over 250 children remain in immigration detention in Australia and on Nauru, contradicting comments from Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, but the latest figures confirm the government is continuing to reduce the number.
Mr Turnbull, in an appearance on the ABC's Q&A program on Monday night, insisted on a number of occasions that the number of children in detention had fallen to 136.
"At the time of the election when we came into government, there were just under 1400. Now there are 136. So we, with our policies, have reduced the number of children in detention by 90 per cent," Mr Turnbull said.
When pressed, Mr Turnbull said: "There are 136 as of 12pm today. There are 192 as of last Thursday. There were 1992 at the peak under Labor in 2013."
The number quoted by Mr Turnbull, however, ignores the 119 children who remain in detention on Nauru.
The total number of children in detention as of Monday, according to Immigration Department figures, is 252.
A spokesman for Immigration Minister Peter Dutton on Tuesday said the Abbott government was committed to removing children from immigration detention.
"Children in detention peaked at almost 2000 under Labor. Since taking office, the Coalition Government has worked assiduously to move children from detention into the community," the spokesman said.
Mr Turnbull had been responding to a question from a woman who said she regularly visited the Villawood detention centre in Sydney.
Jane Healy said she knew some of the children mentioned in the Australian Human Rights Commission report into children held in immigration detention, released last week, and which prompted a barrage of criticism aimed at the commission's president, Gillian Triggs.
"I know an eight-year-old who attempted suicide by eating rocks and screws and bolts from the tents that he lived in for 14 months on Nauru," Ms Healy said to Mr Turnbull on Monday night.
"I know a 14-year-old who attempted to hang herself. I would ask you personally to justify the irreparable damage that's being done to hundreds of children still in detention?"
The return to debate over children in detention comes in the wake of the release last week of a long-awaited report from the Australian Human Rights Commission into children in immigration detention.
The report prompted an attack against Professor Triggs, including from Prime Minster Tony Abbott.
"The real issue here is the children. The children and the welfare of the children," Mr Turnbull said.
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