How Australia's get-tough government censored pictures
of asylum-seekers to gain re-election
By Kathy Marks in Brisbane
19 February 2002
The photograph, showing children in life jackets
floating in the Indian Ocean, was political dynamite.
Released during last year's Australian election
campaign, it appeared to provide conclusive evidence
that Iraqi asylum-seekers threw their children
overboard after their fishing boat was turned back by
an Australian warship.
This account of heinous parental conduct on the high
seas was given by John Howard's government at the
beginning of the campaign and used to justify its
crackdown on boat people from Afghanistan and the
Middle East. The explosive claims were repeated up
until election day. "I don't want people like that in
Australia," Mr Howard declared.
His right-wing government was returned to office in
November, its political fortunes transformed by its
new tough stance on the asylum issue. That startling
photograph, which fixed itself in the public
consciousness, played no small part in the outcome.
But other pictures, published yesterday by the Labour
Opposition, cast a different light on events.
They clearly show that children were not in the water
because they were tossed in by their heartless
parents, but because the fishing boat had sunk. And
the photographs were not taken during the
confrontation with HMAS Adelaide, as the government
claimed. They were taken the next day, while the
asylum-seekers were being rescued by the Adelaide's
crew off Christmas Island, an offshore territory.
An election campaign already regarded as one of the
dirtiest in Australian history was even more sordid
than it appeared at the time.
Not content with vilifying vulnerable people for
political gain, the government at worst concealed – at
best ignored – evidence that contradicted its story.
The cover-up is convulsing Australia, with the
opposition and the media insisting it casts serious
doubt on Mr Howard's credibility and the legitimacy of
his election victory.
He and his ministers claim they were left in the dark
by naval officials and senior public servants who
apparently felt there was no need to tell their
political masters the publicised account of the
incident was incorrect. But each day the trail of
responsibility edges closer to the politicians, and
the photographs, taken by the Adelaide's crew, might
prove their undoing.
Yesterday the Defence Minister, Robert Hill, admitted
that five photographs showing the wider picture of
events in the Indian Ocean were e-mailed to the office
of his predecessor, Peter Reith, and sent to his
advisers. Mr Reith has retired.
And Miles Jordana, a senior adviser to Mr Howard, was
warned before the election by Mr Reith's office that
doubts were circulating about the veracity of the
"children overboard" claims. Mr Jordana did not pass
on those doubts to the Prime Minister, he says,
because he regarded them as unsubstantiated rumours.
As the opposition leader, Simon Crean, observed
yesterday, no such reticence was exercised in relation
to the initial reports, which Philip Ruddock, the
Immigration Minister, rushed to bring to the attention
of a shocked public, without checking them with
authoritative sources.
Most people had no problem believing them. For months,
the government had been demonising asylum-seekers as
queue-jumpers, economic migrants and terrorists
attempting to slip into Australia in leaky boats. But
scepticism was expressed in some quarters, and so the
photographs – the ones that appeared to back up the
claims – were published three days later.
The pictures, said Mr Reith, "show absolutely, without
question whatsoever, that there were children in the
water". (That much is true.) Mr Reith also said he had
a videotape that supported his account. Later, when
told by defence officials that it did not show
children being thrown overboard, he replied: "Well,
we'd better not see the video then." The truth has not
come out because the government had a change of heart.
Naval officers tried to blow the whistle discreetly
during the election campaign. When they failed, the
chief of the navy, Vice-Admiral David Shackleton, took
the brave step of telling the media that the story was
wrong.
Mr Howard had no choice but to order an inquiry, and
two damning reports on the incident were tabled last
week. On the same day, by coincidence, a separate
inquiry dismissed government claims that Afghan
asylum-seekers at Woomera detention centre sewed their
children's lips together during a recent hunger
strike. The teenagers did it themselves.
There are signs that the tide of public opinion is
beginning to turn. While most people still approve of
Australia's hardline refugee policy, an opinion poll
two days ago found that 51 per cent of respondents
believed the government acted dishonourably during the
campaign.
Respected newspapers such as The Australian agree. As
it wrote in an editorial last weekend: "During an
election campaign fought on the issue of
asylum-seekers, John Howard, Philip Ruddock and Peter
Reith peddled falsehoods about boat people, then
failed to correct their slurs even when public
servants at the highest levels knew the truth."
Yesterday Australia's most senior civil servant, Max
Moore-Wilton, defended the original version of events.
Mr Moore-Wilton, head of the Department of Prime
Minister and Cabinet, told a Senate inquiry: "I am not
aware that children have not been thrown overboard. It
has not been established that children were not thrown
overboard."
The Alice in Wonderland saga continues.
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