Transcript
MAT TINKLER: What happened back in October 2014 was that the Government made a series of allegations that were later proven to be completely unsubstantiated around those workers having engaged in protest activity, fabricated claims of abuse and self-harm for asylum seekers. They were investigated by two separate inquiries and cleared of all wrong doing. What's happened in the last few days is the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, which was the contracting agency for the work we did in Nauru, have reached a settlement agreement with those staff members and issued a statement of regret.
DON WISEMAN: The organisation - what is your reaction to it? Are you happy with it?
MT: Yes, we're happy. We, as an organisation, separately reached a settlement agreement with the Government last year but in this case we are very pleased that this very challenging and traumatic experience for these staff members has come to an end. We hope that it brings them some degree of closure on this episode. You can imagine from their perspective - if you are a teacher or child protection worker, who's trained to support, educate and safeguard a child, to have allegations of this nature thrown at you, while absurd, it's also very damaging to your integrity and reputation. So we hope by finally reaching a settlement agreement and issuing this statement, that it brings some closure to those employees and allows them to move on with their lives and their careers.
DW: Are they still employees of Save The Children?
MT: No, they're not. So we retained them as staff members for as long as we could but they were employed by our Nauru programme and they weren't allowed to go to Nauru - they didn't have the deportation orders lifted from their names - in fact they still haven't. So we retained them for as long as we could on our books and we did successfully redeploy some to other programmes that we run but at this point in time, none of them are still employed by the organisation.
DW: Would you employ them again?
MT: Oh, absolutely. They were some of our best staff. They were hardworking, talented individuals who were working with children in a very tough environment. We would absolutely employ them again.
DW: Does Save The Children regret having got involved in this controversial detention centre set up in Nauru?
MT: No, we don't regret it. We'd make the same decision again - that we made at the time. It was a difficult decision to provide services in that environment - it was one that we calibrated very carefully. Ultimately, we decided that children in Nauru, in detention, need our help and we were the best-placed organisation to provide it. It's not new for us to work in difficult environments - I've had staff deployed to Mosul, Iraq and Syria, to places in Africa that are in conflict and in food crises...So notwithstanding the controversy, we think that a rights-based organisation like Save Our Children needs to be supporting those children and their families. Because if we're not, and the present case is a for-profit company, like Broadspectrum formerly Transfield, is providing welfare and education support for refugee children and I don't think that's the best outcome for those kids.
DW: Does Save The Children have things to say to the Australian Government about the ongoing issues that exist on the island with regards to the children there?
MT: Oh, absolutely. First and foremost, the children and their families, and all the asylum seekers, need to be resettled in a safe, prosperous country absolutely urgently. So the greatest challenge we saw when we departed Nauru, back in October 2015, the thing that was causing the most harm to these people was the complete absence of hope and certainty for their futures. Like most of us they want a safe home, a school for their kids to go to and a chance to get a job and make a life. They don't have that opportunity in Nauru and it is literally turning them to despair, self-harm and depression - so they need to be resettled urgently. Now if this deal with the US Government holds, and indications are that it will, then what needs to happen is that they need to be processed and resettled there as soon as possible. And if the deal is not going to hold, then the Government needs to urgently find an alternative.
