Full and Independent Inquiry into Kids Overboard Vital

16 August 2004

A full judicial inquiry into the so called "children overboard" affair must now be conducted after the next election, regardless of which party forms government, Mr Howard Glenn, the National Director of A Just Australia, said today.

Revelations this morning confirm the view that A Just Australia has held about the manufactured crisis of boat arrivals since 2001, that the Australian public deserve a full, frank and independent judicial inquiry, Mr Glenn said.

"Over recent years there have been a succession of inquiries that have revealed disturbing facts and information about our treatment of boat people and asylum seekers generally.
"These reports include serious allegations ranging from the mistreatment of intercepted asylum seekers, raised in the 2002 US Human Rights Watch investigation, through to the most recent report of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission which found that the treatment of children in detention centres amounted to institutionalised child abuse and was 'cruel, inhuman and degrading'," Mr Glenn said.

"That inquiry also found that 92% of the children who reached Australia via boat were legitimate refugees.

"And of course there was the Senate Inquiry, which while important remains fundamentally incomplete because of the Government's refusal to allow key witnesses to testify.

"Now however, with Mr Scrafton's letter, we are beginning to hear the truth. Only a full and independent judicial inquiry - which can compel witnesses to testify and equally offer appropriate legal protection for witnesses who may feel fearful of retribution - will allow us to get to the bottom of these deeply disturbing issues.

"Since the Tampa incident many Australians have become increasingly concerned with the government's policies regarding asylum seekers. These policies have and continue to cause massive and unnecessary trauma.

"An inquiry would help ensure that if boats start to come again, we will get our responses right. But importantly, the critical healing process for the victims of the Government's policies requires that we uncover the truth about the events of recent years.

"At stake now is one of the key elements of our democratic process: the ability for independent and impartial scrutiny of the Government, to get the full facts out into the public domain. This is the only way governments can be held accountable. We owe the truth not just to those who sought refuge in Australia, but for all Australians," Mr Glenn said.