Phillip Adams: Tony when you first contacted me on the SIEVX you were very concerned about the strange way that the boat had virtually disintegrated and you were suspicious there might have been sabotage. Do you still hold that suspicion and might it have been a part of the disruption program?
Tony Kevin: I no longer hold the suspicion Phillip, I'm convinced of it now. Unfortunately when you've got an admitted strong relationship with people like Enniss who are not only informants for AFP but also active people smuggling disrupters for Indonesian Police by methods such as sending people out on false voyages, sabotaging engines, sinking boats, one is really ninety per cent of the way to the SIEVX scenario. We also have a man - Abu Quassey - who is now facing charges, he may be sentenced later this week for passport offences, but who has admitted that he had accomplices in the preparation of the SIEVX boat and that the accomplices prepared the boat, that is to say might well have loosened the planks, sugared the engine and so on, organised the overloading of the boat under forced duress, and these are precisely the kinds of activities that Kevin Enniss was engaging in in cooperation with Indonesian Police... [Full transcript here]
Having just viewed the latest installment of the activities of Kevin John Ennis, Australian people smuggler, I would have to say that sending out a Navy ship to bring people to Australia sounds like a good plan.
The fact is, that is exactly what has been happening for the last four years.
With boats being arranged and watched by the Australian Federal Police in Indonesia, departure dates known, arrival dates known, where is the "smuggling". The facts indeed point more to a carefully co- ordinated movement of the innocent by wilful Government authorities for political gain.
As to the issue of deterrence, Australia has for 50 years run an on- shore refugee assessment program under the Geneva Convention on Refugees and the current policy contravenes that Convention.
On Sunday sunrise on Channel 7 on 1.9.02 Ruddock finally admitted that "we just don't want to process anyone." In the meantime his "deterrence" has cost 360 lives at sea, one on Nauru in our illegal concentration camp, 7 on-shore in our illegal concentration camps and according to the Sunday program, maybe hundreds of others have died due to the Australian owned and run "disruption" program.
We really need to take a good hard look at our International commitments and either withdraw entirely or live up to them.