26 October 2002

A contributor to this site received this response from Simon Crean regarding SIEVX:

Thank you for writing to me about the sinking of the SIEVX and the children overboard incident.

The Senate Select Committee on a Certain Maritime Incident has tabled its report, after eight months of work, 15 days of hearings, and non-stop obstruction from the Government.

Despite John Howard's initial claim that he wasn't afraid of the truth, he used a Cabinet directive to prevent key staffers from giving evidence to the committee, and to prevent Departments and Agencies from providing submissions to the Inquiry. It is clear he wanted to keep as much of the truth hidden as possible.

The committee has found that:

• From the 7th October 2001, the Prime Minister, his office and senior members of PM&C received, on at least thirteen occasions, written or oral reports that indicated serious doubts that children had been thrown overboard.

• From the 7th October, Peter Reith and his office received on at least fourteen occasions, written or oral reports that categorically denied, or indicated there were serious doubts, that children had been thrown overboard.

• From the 7th October, Philip Ruddock's department never received any written advice from Defence indicating that children had been thrown overboard.

Mr Howard was told before his election address to the Press Club that there were doubts about the authenticity of the photographs that Peter Reith released as evidence that children had been thrown overboard. However, on the following day at the Press Club, even when asked directly about the authenticity of the photographs, Mr Howard chose not to mention those doubts.

The current Defence Minister, Senator Hill, has announced that Defence communications have now been streamlined. But the fault did not lie with Defence communications. It lay with the Ministers and their staff who ignored those communications - who were not interested in the truth and even less interested in the truth getting to the Australian people.

And even now, over a year later, no one has been sacked or disciplined for allowing the lie to remain. No public servant, no staffer, no Minister.

There were clear problems with the intelligence flow and analysis regarding people smuggling activities, and these must be addressed. However it is Labor's strong view that if the ADF knew that SIEVX was in distress, they would have rushed to the rescue. What happened before SIEVX's departure from Indonesia remains unknown.

Only a judicial inquiry can get to the bottom of the people smuggling disruption program in Indonesia. The lives of 353 people were lost when SIEVX sank on 19 October 2001. We owe it to them to find out exactly what happened.[emphasis added]

Yours sincerely

Simon Crean

Other SIEVX Related News

• Intelligence of a Leaky SIEV ~ Cameron Stewart (Aus)

• Sinking Ships and Dirty Labor Tricks ~ Piers Akerman (DT)

• A Slight Against our Finest ~ Editorial, 25 October 2002 (DT)

• Web Diary Watch ~ David Davis (in Margo's Web Diary)

• Shock waves bring out the best in our leaders ~ Mike Carlton (SMH)