Government's stance on children in detention is ''appalling''.

In response to the letter "Support for grandmothers" by Horrible Australian (Your View, April 14).

You are quite right about the children in detention being better fed and cared for physically than some poor children on the "outside" who are physically and emotionally abused by unfit parents.

But we cannot rectify every terrible, individual situation as much as we would like to do that. We must speak up whenever we see injustice and cruelty being carried out in our name (Australia).

The government's stance is appalling on this issue. Social workers are leaving Nauru and say that nothing is being done to acknowledge the abuse of children there.

Tony Abbott criticises the author of the Forgotten Children report rather than listening to the issues, and human rights lobby groups are petitioning the government but all that is happening is denial, secrecy and blaming the messengers.

In the meantime, there are still more than 100 children in detention.

If these children are given the opportunity to be educated in Australian schools and mix with other children, they would see for themselves that Australians are not horrible people, despite what they may be told by parents who may have suffered in detention.

Meg Peterson, Bundeena