Children Overboard - Lies for Political Advantage
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The ''children overboard'' affair refers to claims made two days into the 2001 Australian election campaign by the then Immigration Minister, Phillip Ruddock. Ruddock claimed that asylum seekers had thrown babies overboard from a fishing boat as a way of pressuring the Australian Navy to rescue them and take all the asylum seekers to Australia.
LIES"A number of children have been thrown overboard, LIES & MORE DAMNED LIES.again with the intention of putting us under duress" Ruddock told a media conference on October 7, 2001.Australian Prime Minister [[John Howard]] said on talkback radio "I can't comprehend how genuine refugees would throw their children overboard".
"Well, it did happen. The fact is As 'evidence' the Australian government released photos of children were thrown into in the waterbeing rescued by Australian Navy personnel."
-- Peter Reith October 2001 (Minister for Defense)
"All we know is that children were thrown Howard's Liberal Party had decied to making anti-refugee policy one of the cornerstones of its re-election bid inan effort to win support from the former supporters of Pauline Hanson's populist One Nation Party, which first proposed using the Navy to repel asylum seekers arriving by boats."
-- Philip Ruddock (Immigration Minister)
However, in the last week of the election campaign doubts that the released photos were in fact of children 'thrown' into the water but of people being rescued when their boat sank on October 8.
The military tried to correct the record but the federal government refused to hear. The federal government continued to claim that children were thrown overboard and used the issue to help them win another term in the federal election.
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In 2001On November 8, Australia was facing a federal election. The incument government looked like they were about to lose just two days before the election. Then came the arrival of of illegal immigrants in boatsthen Defence Minister, Peter Reith, released a video claiming it was proof that children had been thrown overboard. Photographs taken by However, the Australian military of children in video only showed a man standing at the water were explained by railing on the federal government as boat holding a child. "Well, it did happen. The fact is children being were thrown overboard in an attempt to blackmail into the military into picking up water," said the boat peoplethen Defence Minister, Peter Reith.
The photos did indeed show children in Howard's Liberal Party ruthlessly exploited the wateranti-refugee sentiment they created. The photos were taken as a record by the navy of a rescue operationOn election day they ran full-page newspaper advertisements. There was no evidence "We will decide who comes to support the claim of children being thrown overboard. The military tried to correct the record but the federal government refused to hear. The federal government continued to claim that children were thrown overboard this country and used the issue to help them win another term circumstances in the federal electionwhich they come … a vote for your local Liberal team member protects our borders," they stated.
Howard won the election but the controversy over the claims made in the 'children overboard'see Dark Victory affairs persisted. The Australian Senate - dominated by David Marr the Opposition Labor Party, the Australian Greens, the Australian Democrats and Marian Wilkinson (ISBN 1865089397)''
several independent members - initiated a Senate select committee of inquiry into the affair.
As a result of the submissions and the cross-exemination of military officers and other witnesses, the claims that children were thrown overboard were disproved. However, what exactly Howard was told remained unresolved as the Government directed that key staff not appear before the committee to give evidence.
In particular, an adviser to Reith, Mike Scrafton, did not give evidence. The final committee report noted its "inability to question Mr Scrafton on the substance of his conversations with the Prime Minister" left the question of what Howard knew about the misrepresentations unresolved.
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In August 2004, Scrafton wrote a letter to the Editor of The Australian newspaper stating that on November 7, 2001 - just three days before the election - he had spoken to Howard on three occasions after viewing the video which he said provided no evidence that children were thrown into the sea.
Lie (n): a deliberate false statement; a situation involving deception
Scrafton wrote that he had told Howard "that no one in Defence that I dealt with on the matter still believed any children were thrown overboard". Despite this, Howard continued to claim that children had been thrown into the sea.
Lie: deceitHowever, falsehoodin the lead up to the next election - due by April 2005 - the issue of Howard's credibility has become a major issue.
==Books==
*David Marr and Marian Wilkinson, falsification''Dark Victory'', fibAllen & Unwin, fiction, invention, misrepresentation, prevarication, untruth2003.ISBN 1865089397