VICTORIA’S Health Minister Jill Hennessy has led a resounding show of support for the Royal Children’s Hospital’s demands that children be removed from immigration detention centres.

But Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten have both dodged questions about the ­future of children held in ­immigration detention.

The Herald Sun revealed yesterday RCH doctors were refusing to send children back to detention in a showdown with the Immigration Department that could see them jailed for up to two years.

Ms Hennessy said the ­Andrews Government backed the doctors’ decision — and urged the Federal Government to do the same.

“I’m extremely proud to be the Health Minister in a state where its doctors and nurses are putting the interest of children first,” she said.

“If the staff of the Royal Children’s Hospital come to the clinical view that it is not in the interests of those children to go back into detention, then we will support them.”

The nation’s most powerful medical groups have also supported the move.

Australian Medical ­Asso­ciation president, Prof­essor Brian Owler, urged Mr Turnbull and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to intervene, while Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president, Dr Frank Jones, said it was an urgent matter children and their families be released.

Royal Australian College of Physicians president, Professor Nick Talley, demanded the Government respond swiftly to a Senate report recommending the removal of all children and their families into the Australian community.

A rally on the steps of the State Library yesterday for the Stand Up for Refugees Rally to ­support the RCH staff. Picture: Andrew HenshawSource: News Corp Australia

A 600-strong crowd gathered on the steps of the State Library yesterday for the Stand Up for Refugees Rally to ­support the RCH staff.

­Addressing the rally, Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young called the doctors “brilliant human beings” and declared Manus Island and Nauru detention centres “hellholes”.

“Those doctors and nurses have done what the Government has failed to do: protect the children,” she said. “It’s mental torture to keep children in detention.”

Mr Turnbull’s office declined to comment, but referred the Herald Sun to a statement by Mr Dutton that outlined the 2000 children detained under Labor had dropped to about 100.

Opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles, will today introduce a Private Member’s Bill requiring child abuse in all detention facilities to be reported.

Originally published as RCH backed in fight to free the kids