Tony Kevin
We find it easier to deal with whistleblowing disclosures out of government on small stories than on big ones. Often , the really big ones don't even need whistleblowers — they are all there already on the public record.
Yet, they do not get written about because they are too hard to confront, like the Australian police people smuggling disruption program in Indonesia, its covert links to Indonesian police and undercover disruption agents, and its possible working connections to those who sank SIEV X; or, the illegal secret armed attack on Iraq by Australian troops 30 hours before the declared ultimatum to Saddam Hussein expired, that was lied about by PM John Howard to the Australian parliament; or the foreign minister's negligence in taking no travel-advice action to warn Australian travellers despite clear and high-level intelligence agency warnings during 2002 about a growing risk of terrorist attacks on Australians in "soft target" locations in South East Asia — warnings we only found out after more than 200 people had died in Bali.
Even in the "children overboard" affair, most of us miss the really significant part of the story — that has been perfectly well known since 2002 from Senate committee evidence and now my book A Certain Maritime Incident: Commander Banks of HMAS Adelaide was illegally ordered by Canberra to keep more than 200 people on board a dangerously unsafe boat for 22 hours.
The now-famous kids-in-the-water photos were taken at the final moment of rescue when the boat foundered suddenly, and the people were ordered to jump overboard if they wanted to be rescued by the Navy dinghies surrounding the sinking boat. It took nearly an hour to pick them all up out of the water. and it is a miracle that none drowned. They should never have been left at that risk.
The real issue is not what the photographs do not show; it is what they do show. But that is too big a story to deal with, so it is not yet being told.
Having said that, I am delighted that Michael Scrafton has come clean, and that he was inspired by the Group of 43 statement calling for truth in government (which I was glad to sign).
Let him be an example to others, on the big story that is SIEV X.
[Former diplomat Tony Kevin blew the whistle on possible government responsibility for the sinking of the SIEV X. His recent book on these events, A Certain Maritime Incident, is now on sale.]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, August 25, 2004.
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