The Australian Greens have congratulated doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals for taking a strong stand against children in detention today.

"I left medicine to go into politics for the exact same reason that these health workers are making a stand today: we've got to fix the factors that make people sick. By locking up innocent people, denying them decent medical care and stripping them of all hope we are actively creating harm," said Greens Leader Dr Richard Di Natale.

The Senate has supported a Greens' Order for Production of Documents, demanding that the Immigration Minister table any expert advice he received before announcing his blanket ban on West African refugees.

"This cruel, senseless ban is embarrassing Australia on a global scale and the Minister has to explain himself," the Greens immigration spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

"The Parliament deserves to know what advice, if any, the Minister received before making this shameful announcement."

The Greens will ban junk food advertising during children's television programming, on websites aimed at children, and via smart phones.

For years public health experts have been calling for a ban on junk food advertising to our kids. They have shown that junk food companies go out of their way to target our children because they know if they can hook them young, they will have a loyal customer for life.

The Greens plan for an expert panel to monitor the health of refugees in offshore detention.

Conditions in Australia’s offshore refugee camps are harsh and dangerously inadequate, with no safeguards or oversight for medical and mental health, and no transparency. The old parties are risking the health and wellbeing of thousands of refugees, including children, by dumping them in appalling conditions in Nauru and Papua New Guinea. A caring nation looks after people fleeing persecution and their physical and mental health.

Greens’ immigration spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, joined Greens health spokesperson, Dr Richard Di Natale, to announce that the Greens would establish an independent health oversight panel for refugees.

“The old parties are storming ahead with the race to refugee cruelty as they races to the polls, showing complete disregard for the physical and mental health of the people affected,” Greens’ immigration spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

A Senate inquiry report has been released today in which the Greens recommend an independent panel be urgently created to oversee the physical and mental health of refugees in detention offshore.

“It was made clear during this inquiry that the Australian Government has been failing in its duty of care to the people we have locked up in detention centres offshore,” the Greens immigration spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

The Australian Greens say the Government must heed the warnings of the Australian Medical Association and support a bill put forward by Greens’ Senators Sarah Hanson-Young and Richard Di Natale that would establish an independent health oversight panel for refugees.