Senate Inquiry dismissed as political witch hunt

Transcript

Australia's government has dismissed a Senate inquiry into the country's asylum seeker detention centre on Nauru as a political witch hunt by an opposition-dominated committee.

The committee's scathing report was released on Monday, and says the government should speed up the removal of children from Nauru and launch a full audit into allegations of abuse and other criminal conduct.

But for some, it doesn't go far enough.

Jamie Tahana reports.

The Senate inquiry heard from a range of witnesses who told of child abuse, sexual assault, violence, deprivation and the mental suffering of people facing indefinite detention.  In its scathing 132-page report, the committee says conditions on Nauru are unsafe and inadequate, and has called for a full audit of the asylum seekers' allegations.

 EXTRACT FROM REPORT:  The committee is deeply concerned that without this inquiry, the allegations heard and evidence received would not have been uncovered. There appears to be no other pathway for those affected by what they have seen and experienced in the Regional Processing Centre on Nauru to disclose allegations of mistreatment, abuse or to make complaints.

The Senate committee also recommends that all asylum seeker children be moved from Nauru, and that the centre should progress towards a more open facility.  It also found that Australia -- not Nauru -- is legally responsible for the goings-on at the centre, and that its operators -- Transfield Services and Wilson Security -- were not properly accountable.  The committee also called for the Australian Human Rights Commission and the media to be granted "reasonable access" to the centre.  The committee's chair, Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, says the report lays out well-known systematic abuse on Nauru.

SARAH HANSON-YOUNG:  The most horrific aspects of this inquiry really is the abuse of children, sexual harassment and assault of women, and the fact that for months the government, contractors have known that the abuse has been going on and yet these women and children remain locked up inside the camp.

But the two government Senators who sat on the five-member committee, Linda Reynolds and David Johnston, presented a dissenting report, saying it was politically motivated and that Nauru was responsible for running the centre.  They also say many of the allegations are untested and rely on unsubstantiated hearsay.  The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, has rejected the report as a political witch hunt, saying the committee is dominated by the opposition.  But he says he is open to considering the recommendations.

PETER DUTTON: I'm happy to consider any of the recommendations which provide for a better outcome for people. I think anybody would make that statement. It's a statement of the obvious.

However, the Refugee Action Coaltion's spokesperson, Ian Rintoul, says the government has consistently turned a blind eye to abuse on Nauru and the inquiry is likely to be ignored.

IAN RINTOUL:  It's been very well known that this is happening and finally it was forced on the government. The thought, I think, that the inquiry would just flick it off but the inquiry confirmed that there were systematic abuse. We've got numerous cases of first-hand testimony, and the Senate inquiry was really just the tip of the iceberg.

The Australian Council for International Development is the peak body for the country's aid and development NGOs including Save the Children, which used to provide social services on Nauru.  Nine Save the Children staff were deported from the island in October after a report claimed they had encouraged protests and self-harm, claims which were later found to have no basis.  The council's executive director, Marc Purcell, says the Senate inquiry isn't unanimous and is divided down political lines, and an independent investigation needs to be held into what are now proven cases of child abuse.  Mr Purcell says a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which is currently ongoing in Australia, should investigate the Nauru claims.

MARC PURCELL:  In Australia, if there are cases of child abuse there's mandatory reporting. In Nauru, there is no framework for doing that. What we have at the moment is Australian officials running a system where institutional abuse of children is occurring on Nauru and it's operating with a lack of transparency and I would say relative impunity. So we want to see accountability.

Marc Purcell says mandatory detention is clearly damaging vulnerable children, and much more needs to be done.