"I wish we didn't have to own up to a policy deliberately designed to inflict suffering on people who have already been traumatised in the countries from which they've fled"

This quote by Hugh Mackay is referring to the policy of overseas detention of asylum applicants. This policy is deliberately developed to cause suffering on individuals who have already been traumatised in the nations from which they have gotten away. It is a policy that is inhumane and unjustified, and Mackay is expressing his dream that it did not exist. He is highlighting the reality that these individuals have currently been through a lot trauma and challenge, and yet they are still subjected to further suffering and injustice. He is requiring a more caring and humane method to the treatment of asylum applicants, one that does not involve inflicting additional suffering on those who have already been through a lot.