Liars & racists

by Marcus Browning

Revelations that the Howard Government concocted a litany of distortions, 
cover-ups and outright lies in an elaborate and dirty campaign to whip up 
fear and hatred in the community against refugees have exposed it as 
morally and politically bankrupt, governing by secrecy and collusion. The 
racist campaign served as the pretext for the imposition of its inhumane 
refugee policy and as an opportunistic vote-grabbing exercise in last 
November's federal election.

The revelations came as evidence emerged that the military's Defence 
Signals Directorate illegally tapped into communications between the 
Norwegian freighter the "Tampa" and the Maritime Union of Australia after 
the freighter had taken hundreds of refugees on board from a sinking vessel 
in Australian waters.

The refugee policy of mandatory detention in Australia and of locking 
asylum seekers in Pacific island prison camps was always a disgrace. It is 
now completely discredited, not only as a gross violation of human rights 
but also as part of a hoax perpetrated by the Government to deceive the 
Australian people.

Defence Minister Robert Hill was forced this week to admit that photos 
showing asylum seekers jumping into the sea from a sinking vessel were sent 
to the then Defence Minister Peter Reith but never released. Before being 
made public the photos of the vessel were cropped in a way that reinforced 
Government claims refugees were throwing their children overboard.

The Government then stepped up its demonisation of asylum seekers. John 
Howard stated in October last year: "Quite frankly, I don't want in this 
country people who are prepared ... to throw their children overboard."

And Peter Reith: "Someone has looked at it and it is an absolute fact, 
children were thrown in the water."

And Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock: "I regard these as some of the 
most disturbing practices that I have come across ... clearly planned and 
premeditated."

Liberal Senator Ross Lightfoot wasn't quite so coy: "Such attempts to 
blackmail Australia into accepting these uninvited and repulsive people 
only serve to harden the resolve of decent, balanced Australians."

Reith, when told by the Army command that video of the sinking vessel did 
not show children being thrown in the water, said, "Well, we'd better not 
see the video."

Other grand lies included claims that refugees are "queue jumpers", that 
parents had coerced their children into sewing their lips together in 
protests at detention centres, and that there were "terrorist links" among 
the asylum seekers: all of which have now been exposed as untrue.

Lying on spying

Lawyers for the Maritime Union (MUA) are preparing to lodge a formal 
complaint against the Government for spying on its communications with the 
"Tampa" last August. 

The Government used the freighter to kick off its anti-refugee policy via 
its Border Protection legislation, refusing to allow its captain to 
disembark the 439 refugees at Christmas Island, thereby creating a stand-
off and a closer international scrutiny of Australia's treatment of asylum 
seekers.

The MUA said there was evidence that the government espionage was outside 
national guidelines, a serious breach of privacy and an intrusion on 
legitimate union business. The union said its contact with the "Tampa" was 
in support of and concern for the crew.

"We believed the ship's master was only upholding maritime tradition and 
international law in rescuing people at sea and we told him so", said MUA 
National Secretary, Paddy Crumlin. All crew members on board the "Tampa" 
were affiliated with the International Transport Federation, as is the MUA.

"The Government has not been able to justify these outrageous acts", said 
Mr Crumlin. He said the union also wanted to clear up whether the spying 
was a part of the ongoing conspiracy against the MUA, a conspiracy 
confirmed by the High Court in 1998.

At that time Peter Reith, who was then Workplace Relations Minister, 
conspired with waterfront employer Patrick Stevedores to secretly train 
scab dock workers in Dubai in a push to eliminate the union from the 
waterfront.

According to the National Co-ordinator of the Australian Anti-Bases 
Campaign Coalition, Denis Doherty, the "Tampa" incident is just the tip of 
the iceberg. "Government claims that this was a small and one-off 
infringement of the rule forbidding monitoring of Australian citizens' 
communications are deliberate misinformation." 

Mr Doherty said the US Echelon spy system is specifically set up to 
continuously and indiscriminately intercept all the satellite 
telecommunications around the globe. In Australia the spy base at Geraldton 
near Perth monitors satellite communications in the Indian Ocean as part of 
this system, and this inevitably includes communications to and from 
Australia.

"The Australian Anti-Bases Campaign welcomes this exposure of the lawless 
activities of the Defence Signals Directorate", said Mr Doherty, "and 
supports calls for an inquiry into its unbridled power to violate the 
privacy of the Australian people."