Howard must go!
By February 22, it appeared that former defence minister Peter Reith had
finally decided to hang on to the hot potato of blame in the “children
overboard” scandal.
Admitting that he knew the federal Coalition government had told untruths
to the media, Reith went out of his way to “clarify” that he had not passed
on information regarding the affair to Prime Minister John Howard.
The scenario, as the government is now telling it, is: On October 7,
the government told the media that asylum seekers had thrown children into
the water in an attempt to force Australian sailors to rescue them and
bring them to Australia.
This was on the basis of “verbal advice” from the HMAS Adelaide,
confirmed by the Office of National Assessments. The ONA prepared its advice
on the sole basis of government press releases and media reports based
on these press releases (i.e., it told the government that its claims were
true because the government had said they were!).
On October 10, Reith released pictures of children in the water to the
media. These pictures had been supplied to his office along with other
pictures that made it clear that they were taken when the boat was sinking.
That same day, the captain of the HMAS Adelaide took 16 statutory
declarations from his crew. Nobody reported seeing children thrown overboard.
The captain told an internal defence force inquiry he did not go public
because: “I was directed not to”.
(Also on October 10, a telegraph from the HMAS Adelaide confirmed
that reports of children being thrown overboard were false. This telegraph
was monitored by the Defence Signals Directorate. The DSD did nothing with
the information.)
On October 11, Reith's office was informed that the photographs were
taken while the asylum seekers' boat was sinking on October 8. Reith, claims
he was not informed of this. He claims he was first informed in November
that there was no evidence for the “children overboard” claim.
By this time, John Howard's three chief advisers — Max Moore-Winton,
Miles Jordana and Jane Halton — were definitely aware that the children
were not thrown overboard.
Despite this, on November 8, Reith released a inconclusive video of
“the incident” and Howard publicly read out the ONA report at the National
Press Club. Two days later, the federal election occurred.
The argument that Howard is now making is that the lie is not his fault,
because, despite being prime minister, despite his defence minister being
aware, and his key advisers also being aware, that it was a lie, nobody
told him. Can't be blamed for that, can he?
It is a moot point whether Howard did know, or whether he simply surrounded
himself, and his ministers, with people not willing to bring him bad news.
Howard was the head of a government that lied to an electorate in the middle
of an election campaign.
Two reasons compel his resignation, and the resignation of the entire
government.
First, the Coalition government has betrayed its electors. Whether the
lie was enough to swing the election is not the key point — deception should
have no place in an election campaign. (The fact that it routinely does
is all the more reason to aggressively punish those who are caught out.)
A prime minister who tolerates deception in his staff is as culpable as
a prime minister who practices it himself.
Second, and most importantly, Howard, Reith and immigration minister
Philip Ruddock have viciously defamed people who are fleeing persecution.
The defamed asylum seekers are unlikely to bring a legal case. Many asylum
seekers view it as (literally) suicidal to do anything to antagonise a
government that has the power to deport them back to where they came from.
Even those refugees processed and released from detention are on temporary
protection visas, lacking the same legal protections available to all other
residents.
Howard used the February 16 Daily Telegraph to apologise to “anyone
who feels they were misled”. He has not apologised to the asylum seekers
he accused of attempted murder, nor the thousands of other refugees who
have to live with the impact of his government's demonisation of them.
The vilification of asylum seekers should not be rewarded — Howard and
the Coalition government must go.
From Green Left Weekly, February 27, 2002.
Visit the Green Left Weekly
home page.
