In a government that has waged war on transparency, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection stands out as the most unjustifiably secretive agency in the Commonwealth.
From Operation Sovereign Borders and its absurd “on-water matters” to the department’s attempts to silence those who reported abuse of children on Nauru and the gag on immigration detention whistleblowers that formed part of the establishment of the paramilitary “Australian Border Force”, Immigration has become well known for its obsessive avoidance of scrutiny.
There has never been any reason for this secrecy — it serves no national security function, but is instead used to hide the long trail of shattered bodies and wrecked lives created by the Australian government’s immigration policies.
Australians deserve to know how asylum seeker boats were turned around and Indonesian sovereignty infringed, how Reza Barati was murdered on Manus Island, and how the healthcare provided to detainees in offshore detention is grossly inadequate. Most of all, we deserve to know the full extent of the human damage caused by our outsourcing of responsibility for asylum seekers to private sector providers and the governments of Papua New Guinea and Nauru, where sexual assault, child abuse and physical and other abuse of detainees are commonplace.
Today Crikey publishes information from an internal Immigration department document that outlines the surging number of legal cases by asylum seekers seeking compensation and redress from the Australian government. We also reveal that the Australian government knew about changes to Nauru’s detention centre policy before the legislation was put to Nauruan parliament.
Every government department needs to be open and transparent. As national security bureaucrats like to say to the rest of us: if you’ve done nothing wrong you have nothing to hide.
Abso-farkin’-lutely agreed, Crikey!
BTW, one of Abbott’s pledges before winning the election was that his would be a government of transparency. Another lie, and one which Turnbull seems unlikely to correct. I have little faith in Labor, either, in the now less likely event they win the next election.
“If you’ve done nothing wrong you have nothing to hide.”
You guys know full well this is patently untrue and it weakens your already shallow rhetoric in the rest of the editorial. Their is a clear justification for non publication of border protection tactics, just as the police don’t publish the details of criminal inquiries they are carrying out.
I know the refugee lobby wants to know exactly what’s going on around Christmas Island because it will help them develop a counter strategy to thwart the wishes of middle Australia.
Some things are better not published and on water tactics by Australia’s border protection force is one of them.
Dear David
I want to know what crimes are being committed in my name. You fail totally to refute the argument that national security is not served and your reference to criminal investigations is irrelevant. These people are refugees not criminals, they have the right to seek asylum and they are not repeat NOT criminals. Anyway many criminal investigations are carried out in the spotlight of public scrutiny.
It would seem to me the only criminals involved are those that illegally detain them, deny them their legal rights, dehumanise and vilify them, rape and murder them.
I look forward to the eventual Royal Commission that will occur and justice being served.
Those guilty will be held accountable and that is what Abbott , Morrison et al truly fear.
The Rule of law will prevail
and Scottie from treasury is up to his eyeballs in it..
Well Pav,
Your one of the about 10 to 15% of the population of Australia who thinks all boat people are refugees and that Australia should open its borders to anyone who wants to come.
The rest of us, plus the Coalition and the ALP, are looking at what is going on in Europe with horror and are determined it won’t happen here.
You can have open borders or you can have a welfare state but you can’t have both. Ask Angela Merkel as she’s finding out about this law of nature about now.