immigration
18 Jan 2008
New Minister, Old Department
Why didn’t the Immigration Minister want us to know that he was going to Indonesia to discuss people smuggling, asks Bruce Haigh
When Kevin Rudd won office I had a reasonable expectation of him and his Ministers doing the right thing, so I was angry when I received a heads up earlier this week that the Minister for Immigration, Senator Chris Evans, was about to head off to Indonesia to discuss people smuggling. And it appeared he was not planning to inform the public of his visit - at least not prior to his departure.
(While in Opposition, Labor questioned the cost and transparency of the arrangements between Indonesia and Australia on people smuggling, which were aimed at "disrupting" boats of refugees arriving from Indonesia, and became controversial with the sinking of the SIEV X.)
By Tuesday morning a press release still hadn't been issued by Evans's office, so I rang every journalist I knew to let them know, including Steve Cannane at Radio National Breakfast, who called to arrange an interview with the Minister for the next morning.
A press release was then put out (received by the ABC at 6.15pm) on the eve of Evans's departure. The scope of his visit appeared to have been widened to include calls on the Indonesian Foreign Minister, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). It is somewhat unusual, in diplomatic terms, for the Minister for Immigration to meet with the Indonesian Foreign Minister before the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs has done so. This meeting appeared to be a smokescreen.
The furtive nature of Evans's trip smacked of him being a captive of the old mindset and methodology of his Department. Is the Department trying to lock the new Minister into past decisions and practices in order to keep the lid on the dirty cauldron that Immigration has become?
If so, Evans, who is not the brightest spark on the block, appears to have fallen into their trap.
Evans was interviewed by Cannane on Wednesday, the morning of his departure. In the course of that interview the Minister confirmed that ALP policy included the continued excision of Christmas Island and Ashmore Reef from the Migration Zone and said a decision hadn't been made on whether the other 4,000 islands excluded by the Howard Government would continue to be so, despite Labor claiming it would scrap the Pacific Solution.
Surprisingly, in view of his appointments with the IOM and the UNHCR, when asked whether he was going to raise the issue of Afghani asylum seekers who landed at Ashmore Reef in 2001 and are now trapped on Lombok in Indonesia, he claimed not to have been briefed on the issue. This is surprising given the number of representations that have been received by his office and department.
Evans told Cannane that he was talking to his Indonesian counterpart in order to strengthen existing arrangements between the two countries relating to people smuggling, but when asked whether policy was likely to change under Labor he skirted the question.
I had called the Minister's office the previous day to ask if it was correct that he was travelling to Indonesia to discuss people smuggling. After some delay the office said it would get back to me. No one did that day. The next day I rang and was put through to the press secretary who proceeded to demonstrate a glass jaw comparable to Howard Minister staffers. It was claimed that the Minister, after six weeks in the job, was still getting across his portfolio. I said that Penny Wong appeared to need no such excuse. And in any case, with refugee issues front and centre in Parliament over the past eleven years, where had the Minister been?
Other callers elicited the information, from a different source, that the Minister would have a full brief on the Lombok refugees before his plane landed in Jakarta.
Pathetic. What then was the purpose of the visit if the Minister was so poorly briefed? Or perhaps the question should be: what is the real nature of the policy relating to people smuggling if part of the policy is to keep the Minister in the dark?
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Newsvine
Facebook
Kwoff
Discuss this article
To participate in the discussion Sign in or Register
Nice one Bruce. Good on you!
Bruce Haigh has done a public service in publicly opening up this issue by a call to the Immigration MInister’s office on Tuesday 15 January. By Wednesday 16th, the day before Senator Evans was to leave for Indonesia, a media release had been belatedly issued. And on Thursday 17 January, The Age carried an important article by reporter Jewel Topfield. Let me remind NM readers of some of the content of that article - I am assuming Topfield reported the matter accurately after checking with Evans’s office:
"People smuggler blocks to continue, says minister"
Jewel Topsfield, January 17, 2008, Age
Australia’s controversial disruption program aimed at preventing people smugglers leaving Indonesia will be retained by the Rudd Government — despite Labor expressing deep concern when in opposition that it may involve the sabotage of boats.
Immigration Minister Chris Evans, who is in Indonesia this week to hold talks on border security, yesterday said Australia was "still very interested in people smuggling disruptions".
"The concerns about that disruption policy will obviously be addressed by various ministers responsible, but certainly we are very committed to ensuring that we are attacking the people smuggling operations at source," Senator Evans told the ABC.
In 2002, John Faulkner, now a cabinet minister, called for an independent judicial inquiry into the disruption policy, questioning whether it had extended to interfering with smugglers’ vessels, including the SIEV-X. The SIEV-X sank after its engine failed en route to Christmas Island in 2001, drowning 353 asylum seekers.
"What is deeply concerning about the disruption program is that there appears to be no accountability mechanisms — nothing to ensure that Australia’s disruption policy does not lead to illegal or life-threatening events, either directly or indirectly," Senator Faulkner said in a 2003 speech.
"We still do not know if disruption extends to physical interference with vessels, nor do we know what consideration has been given to questions of maritime safety."
Senator Evans yesterday said he shared Senator Faulkner’s concerns about some of the past activities.
"I think Senator Faulkner’s concern … was very much focused on whether or not there were appropriate methods used or whether the operations had gone too far," Senator Evans said. "And the new Labor ministers will be holding their departments and organisations to account."
Under the former government, the disruption program was run from the Australian embassy in Jakarta and involved the Australian Federal Police, the Indonesian police and other agencies.
Its role was to intervene between people smugglers and their clients, and involved giving fishermen T-shirts bearing warnings about the charges people smugglers faced.
But Senator Faulkner questioned whether the policy also involved sabotage of vessels after a former paid Federal Police informant, Kevin Enniss, claimed he hired people to sink asylum seeker boats on at least four occasions as part of the program.
His claim was strongly disputed by the AFP.
But Labor’s suspicions were further piqued when Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty invoked a "public interest" immunity in 2002 to avoid questions on whether his agency used tracking devices on people smuggling vessels coming to Australia from Indonesia.
Senator Evans yesterday said the Government clearly would not support people scuttling boats and putting lives at risk."
Finally, it should be recalled that the present head of the Immigration Department, Andrew Metcalfe, was the First Assistant Secretary, Border Control and Compliance Division, DIMIA, in 2001-2002. In that position, he was responsible for DIMIA’s participation in the joint (with AFP) people smuggling disruption program - precisely the program that gave rise to the kinds of concerns articulated by Senator Faulkner in the Senate and outside it in 2002-2003. It is therefore important, and reassuring, that Evans now offers the public reassurance - for which he is accountable - that "the Government clearly would not support people scuttling boats and putting lives at risk".
I suggest that the best way to clean this all up now is for the Government - it has this power - to set up the full powers independent judicial enquiry into the sinking of SIEV X and the people smuggling disruption program, that the Senate called for by passed motion four times in 2002-2004.
Sweeping smelly stuff under the carpet never works - the smell always finally comes through. Better to deal with the problem at source. Maybe after his visit to Indonesia - if officials have given him honest advice -Senator Evans will see the good sense of this approach.
Tony Kevin
Bruce Haigh and Tony Kevin show us that vigilance has to be the watchword. Last Friday Judge Lindgren of the Federal Court presaged Orders which he intends to make at on January 30th to force the new Minister for Immigration, Senator Chris Evans, to correct an "egregious failure to follow Parliament’s command" by his predecessor, Kevin Andrews, in determining whether a Protection Visa should be given to an Iraqi asylum seeker held in Villawood IDC for the past 19 months. Prior to detention, Ali Al Jenabi a completed a four year prison sentence in Darwin on people smuggling charges. Evidence was tendered that he never did it for personal profit, it was to help his family and other desperate Iraqis. On release, he was detained under the Immigration Act despite eight members of his immediate family being given Resident Visas. A Senior Case Officer at the Immigration Department also found him to be a genuine refugee, worthy of being a recipent of Australia’s Convention obligations. A clue to his subsequent treatment can be seen by the appearance of not just one - but up to five lawyers representing the AFP at the Federal Court hearing the Al Jenabi matter just before Christmas. Al Jenabi knows a great deal about Australian "disruption" of people-smuggling operations in Indonesia and Thailand. The AFP would rather he be kept silent. It will be interesting to see how much true justice and human rights are applied in the resolution the Al Jenabi affair. Commissioner Bill Kelty’s AFP has signalled all too clearly through the bungled Haneef affair that truth and fairness are not always top operational imperatives.
It is always a problem for a new Government…the remnants of the old one. In this case, 12 years of Howard, and a ruthless purging of the Public Service, with the replacement of people by those friendly to the Howard Govt. means that all Departments are totally anti-pathetic to the incoming Labour Government. They immediately get to work ‘managing’ the new Minister, making sure he/she does what THEY want. Weak Ministers, such as Evans, are easy pickings.
This is all made worse by Rudd’s seeming insistance that he will not replace those same Howard underlings. One has to question Rudd’s intelligence, or ‘innocence’, in such a case. Or is he just doing what he knows is best for himself, a false Labour man. A Tory in Labour clothing. Shades of Tony Blair.
I see that the Labour Govt. has a good poll rating at present, but this ‘honeymoon’ period must soon end when people realise that they have just got a younger version of Howard as PM. Another very conservative, Big Business loving, accolate to neo-conservative, neo-liberal, Economic Rationalist thinking.
The Aust. Federal Police are a rogue force, trained under Howard, run by a Howard sucka..e (Keelty), and knowing nothing but the extreme neo-liberal way of doing things. Their insistance that they are still ‘investigating’ Haneef, despite no charges, or charges dismissed for lack of any evidence, just to be bastards, is a case in point. So long as they keep up this pretense, Haneef is not likely to return to Australia, and this is something that Keelty desires. He and the AFP has been embarassed, and would rather keep the evidence a long way from Australia. Plus the fact that the new Minister lacks the guts to question the advice he is getting from the AFP,or to get rid of Keelty immediately, and put a purge through the ranks of the AFP, who really are Keystone Kops.
The Immigration Dept., proved to be totally inefficient or worse, probably worse, also needs a new Secretary, plus a total purge. Plus a new modus operandi.
The longer Rudd perseveres with the very bad lot he has, the harder it is going to be to do anything about it, but then, he must know this! I do not trust that man one little bit! Never have, never will!
Us Queenslanders, or some thousands of us, have bad memories of him and his methods.
Dazza.
Thanks Bruce, for raising an important issue that shouldn’t be overlooked. There is one point I would like to make. Its not only Afghan asylum seekers on Lombok who have been in Indonesia since 2001. There are also Iraqis and Afghans in Jakarta (mainly single men), and Cisarua/Puncak area in Java (mainly families). And possibly others in other areas of Indonesia. They shouldn’t be forgotten any more than the Lombok Afghans. In all, there are about 120 people who have been stranded since 2001, of whom 30 or so are/were on Lombok.
I’ve been told that in addition, there are around 250 who’ve arrived in recent months - probably Iraqi nationals - and Indonesia, UNHCR and IOM are very concerned about this.
How about a truth and reconciliation process for the immigration department , 3 month amnesty for people to come forward to the minister and talk about what has been happening. There must be a lot of unhappy people at the coalface. Dismissing the obvious culprits will never get to the root of the problem.
Follow that up with some swift action on the people still unlawfully detained and we may start to look like a fair minded and compassionate nation again.
However the paramiltary AFP , that needs purging from the top and strong statutory limits on its authority.