Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) calls on the Government to apologise to Save the Children Australia and its staff, after the Review of recommendation nine from the Moss Review confirmed findings from the Review into recent allegations relating to conditions and circumstances at the Regional Processing Centre in Nauru, that the Government unfairly removed ten Save the Children Australia staff from Nauru;

(2) acknowledges that there is no evidence to support the claims made against Save the Children Australia staff at Nauru; and

(3) notes the great work done by Save the Children Australia in aid, development and helping vulnerable children.

Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion.

Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sorry should not be the hardest word to say and it should not be too much for the Australian people to expect that our government should take responsibility for its actions, especially when those actions damage people, like the nine workers caused to be wrongly removed from their roles in Nauru in October 2014, and also when damage is caused to our democracy through these actions and the failure to be honest and direct with the Australian people as well as those affected workers.

We know now, through an independent report and through the Australian Federal Police, that the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, under then Minister Morrison, had no justification in removing nine Save the Children Australia charity workers from Nauru in 2014 and we know that claims that Save the Children Australia employees coaxed asylum seekers to fabricate accounts of abuse were completely unfounded. Specifically, the Doogan report, which was released very quietly by the government last month despite having been dated June 2015, found that there was 'no evidence nor reliable information' to support the naming of the Save the Children Australia staff at Nauru. This is outrageous and unacceptable and requires an apology to be delivered by the now minister.

The then minister, in publicising details of these outrageous allegations, caused great damage not only to Save the Children Australia and the affected workers but also to other NGOs and indeed more broadly to civil society. This action, and the failure to account for it, has very wide-ranging and serious ramifications. It has been awful for those directly affected—and I will touch on that briefly in a moment.

Let's think here about the chilling effect these actions have had on our civil society. They have undermined our capacity to uphold human rights and hold executive government to account. Some of these individual staff members have spent long periods since October 2014 unemployed and some have suffered from mental health issues after being publicly accused and deported. Having worked, as the Save the Children CEO has said, with some of the most vulnerable children in the toughest of circumstances—this is very difficult and very important work under politically charged circumstances—workers doing the work deserve support, not opprobrium. They deserve support and they deserve respect. It is past the time for that respect to given, in circumstances where nine people have had their reputations tarnished and have been deprived of their livelihoods. And for what?

I remember that the then immigration minister told a press conference on this issue that the public do not want to be played for mugs. This is correct, of course. We have heard a lot of talk about ministerial responsibility lately. These standards include what a minister says. Are we to believe that, if you are the immigration minister, you are free from the ministerial code of conduct? I ask members to think about the provisions of clause 5.5 of that code, which provide very clearly for a minister to correct the record. The insidious nature of the misinformation here is why this government needs to issue an official apology for those concerned from the responsible minister, not a departmental officer.

The government waited months to release the report and then attempted to bury its findings, releasing it on a Friday afternoon in January. This report, of course, not only vindicated the Save the Children staff but condemned the government's appalling and cynical handling of these allegations. It said:

From review of the documentation it seems reasonably clear that the information provided in relation to the ten SCA staff members was not intended to be acted upon in the way it was acted upon. Rather it seems that the intention was that further investigation would be undertaken before any action was taken.

Instead of properly investigating, as he was required to do, the then minister chose to score political points and trash people's reputations through the media.

What we have learnt since, from the Moss report and the Doogan report, was that the government misled the Australian public about what was happening on Nauru. These claims were found to be false by not one but two reports, and the government has thus far refused to put in any effort to correct the record as it is required to do. It puts the new Prime Minister's claims about restoring traditional cabinet government to shame. A simple apology will not make up the mistreatment but it will go some way towards beginning a healing process.

This government needs to recognise that the facts they were provided with were wrong and did not justify their subsequent actions. They need to recognise the damage done by trying to malign a charity—and indeed the workers—with no evidence. It is time for government to stop treating people like mugs and apologises It is not hard to say sorry. It could be the first step in enabling nine people to get on with their lives and in restoring the reputation of Save the Children Australia. (Time expired)

Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for bringing forward this motion in relation to Save the Children. I was lucky enough to participate in a Save the Children visit to Papua New Guinea last year. Although it was not my first visit to that country, it was done with a different perspective to my other visits and it was brilliantly worth the effort.

As parliamentarians, we tend to look for economic and trade connections when we travel to other countries. What else is there to do? We set an agenda of getting there, meeting the key stakeholders, establishing rapport and trying to forge relationships which will benefit each country. My city of Townsville has a 30-year sister city relationship with Port Moresby. It is a strong and vibrant relationship, but it is forged along the lines of governance, commerce, military exchanges, health concerns, university interaction and trade opportunities. I have spent precious little time in Port Moresby, which is, in fact, the closest capital city to Townsville. All of our trips seem to be tightly arranged and time constrained.

So when Save the Children approached me to participate in this trip, I viewed it along those lines. I was completely taken aback and in awe when I saw the work of volunteers abroad—the NGOs and aid workers, the people on the ground trying to make a difference. We travelled to Goroka and then to Port Moresby. We saw how Papua New Guineans were attacking the scourge of domestic violence and how they still had to contend with witchcraft and a lack of educational opportunities.

For me at least, the trip's highlight was a visit to an all-girls boarding school in Port Moresby. Here, the girls are on scholarship and education is at the forefront of their daily routine. To stand there on stage and urge these girls forward in their quest to be that generation which changes the views of women and girls in PNG was as inspiring a moment for me as I have had in my role as a parliamentarian. I am certain that the member for Batman would concur that it was a great day spent there.

There are many challenges in PNG and there are many more levels to their lives which we, as occasional visitors, will never see. But through the work of Save the Children we were able to see the efforts of the PNG police force to tackle domestic violence and crimes against women and girls and children. It was a visit that will stay with me for a long time.

Yes, the stories of the levels of violence, especially towards children, were harrowing. The stories about women being accused of witchcraft made me shake my head—and would make everyone shake their head. There were any number of reasons to think that the task ahead for our nearest neighbour was insurmountable. But through this organisation, Save the Children, we also saw that this was a country not afraid to face up to the biggest challenges, that this was a people who wanted better lives, that this was a country that cared about women and children and was trying its best to make itself a better place. The challenges in PNG are great. From all accounts, it will not achieve a single one of the millennium goals for its people.

In our troupe, there were at least three parliamentarians and one journalist who had never been to our nearest neighbour. Save the Children was able to open the door to MPs and senators from Victoria and New South Wales to allow them to take their stories back to their cities and states. It was a trip worth making. I would urge all who have the opportunity to go on one of these trips to take it up, to bring back the messages of hope from the countries in which Save the Children operates and to make sure that everyone knows what a great job our NGOs and aid agencies do overseas.

I am very proud to lend my name to this organisation in a country like PNG, where we have especially great ties. My city of Townsville has very strong ties through the YWAM Medical Ship, which goes up the rivers in Western Province and does outreach work. It does things like eye surgery and restores sight. It addresses basic health issues of why so many people in Papua New Guinea die in childbirth. Those are the things Save the Children were able to point out to us. They tend to take a very austere look at the way we deal with people and the way we deal with countries. They have the ability to be able to look at the people and not the product, which is hugely beneficial to all of us.

It is confronting when you go overseas to these countries and see just what we take for granted in this country. It is confronting to be put in these places, but it is well worth it. I urge everyone in this place, no matter how marginal your seat, to go in there and have a look at these things, because it is well worth the trip. I thank the House.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion moved by the member for Scullin regarding Save the Children Australia. I would also like to acknowledge the comments made by the previous speaker, the member for Herbert. I too had the opportunity to be part of a Save the Children Delegation earlier this year, to Cambodia, and I agree that the work they are doing in these countries is remarkable. That is why it is disappointing that more government MPs have not called on their minister and their Prime Minister to apologise for what has happened to Save the Children. It also needs to be noted that the government dumped this report on the media at 5 pm on the Friday before the CEO of Save the Children was due to join the delegation I just referenced. So, the government had the report for well over six months and dumped it to the media knowing full well that Save the Children would struggle to respond because they were leading a delegation of MPs and senators to Cambodia to explain and to share the experiences of Australian aid and what it is doing in Cambodia.

You cannot help but think of the cynical nature of this government when it comes not only to the treatment of asylum seekers but to the treatment of aid agencies that are in partnership with the government to ensure that the most vulnerable of people are supported. Save the Children at the time welcomed the independent findings of the Doogan report and said in its press release that it looks forward to entering into negotiations with the Australian government which should see appropriate compensation awarded to its former employees. Is that the reason the government has been so silent? Again, they are attacking workers—workers doing some of the most heartbreaking and hard work: supporting people who are seeking asylum.

We all know from what Save the Children has said and from what our own Senate reports have said that this government's offshore processing facilities are having a shocking impact on the individuals who are incarcerated in these detention centres. You cannot call it anything other than incarceration and prison. Under this government, processing of asylum seekers has blown out to about 450 days. This is not offshore processing; this is offshore detention—people being imprisoned for simply claiming asylum. All Save the Children attempted to do, which was within their rights, we to expose the conditions, to speak up for people who had no voice of their own. They should be acknowledged and congratulated for that, and recognised for the important role they play in our democracy of letting the Australian people know what has been going on in these offshore detention centres. Instead, these workers were effectively sacked by this government, removed, returned and then left to basically pick up the pieces. What do you do when your entire life has been dedicated to advocating for those who are less fortunate than you? The impact that has on a worker shows how heartless this government is, not just to the asylum seekers but to the organisations doing this critical work.

It speaks volumes to the nature of this government when state premiers, churches, community groups and organisations are calling for sanctuary against this government's own policies. Let's ponder that for a moment. The Let Them Stay campaign is about people in our community calling on our government to give sanctuary to our own government's policies in the offshore detention centres. It is a sign that our democracy is not healthy when people are taking to the streets and calling for sanctuary against this government's own moves. What is going on in Nauru and Manus Island is toxic, and I support the cause that there be more open and transparent conversation about this issue. People seeking asylum deserve respect. They deserve dignity, and they deserve to know that their wishes and their cries for help are being heard.

I have a very active community in Castlemaine that regularly speak to me about their concern about people who are seeking asylum who are locked in detention centres. They have shared with me emails they have received from people who are being incarcerated. All they simply say in many of the emails is, 'We are human beings like you; we have families and feelings and have the right to live freely.' (Time expired)

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very proud to have seconded this motion on Save the Children Australia that is before the House, and I thank my colleague the member for Scullin for introducing the motion today. With a history stretching back nearly 100 years, Save the Children has an exemplary record in creating better lives for children and their families in more than 124 countries, delivering both emergency aid and long-term sustainable development programs. But the focus of this debate today is the treatment of Save the Children Australia and its staff on Nauru—in particular, the forced removal of 10 Save the Children staff on orders from the Australian government. Their removal was based on allegations that were utterly baseless, as was confirmed by the independent reviews conducted by Moss and Doogan, contrary to suggestions from then Minister Morrison, who insisted that Save the Children workers were 'making false allegations and worse, allegedly coaching self-harm and using children in protests'.

The independent reviews that followed clearly refuted the minister's suggestion that Save the Children personnel had been encouraging disorder, making clear that their expulsion was totally unjustified. Testimony by former Save the Children workers, during a recent Senate inquiry, further illustrated not only the injustice of the expulsions but also the impact that allegations had on workers, like Natasha Blucher. She told the Senate inquiry:

At the time I was distraught at the—

minister's—

allegation because you can imagine that I and my colleagues were terrified and we were desperately attempting to convince people not to harm themselves. … to be told that I was accused of having tried to facilitate that was beyond comprehension.

These were not the statements of staff looking to pursue a political agenda, as was alleged by Minister Morrison. They were experienced support workers, looking to ensure the welfare of children and adults in Australia's care. It is abundantly clear that Save the Children Australia and their employees are entitled to an unconditional apology from this Liberal government. Beyond an apology, the entitlement to compensation remains a live issue, yet, as Ms Blucher told the Senate inquiry, this is not the focus of concern for the former workers. She said:

… to be honest, I do not feel good talking about compensation, because I feel like it is the least important thing in relation to the seriousness of the harm that is occurring to asylum seekers in the offshore processing centre. So it does not feel right to me to talk about it.

The government's modus operandi of shooting the messenger rather than dealing with the substantive issues at hand must be broken. The lack of transparency, in relation to all matters concerning Australia's handling of refugees, leads me and many others to wonder: what is this government hiding? What is happening on Nauru? What is happening when refugees are met by Australian Border Force at sea? How many people are we sending back to the very dangers that they have tried to escape? And, with the removal of Save the Children personnel from Nauru, who is left to protect and advocate for the refugees on Nauru?

The government cannot walk away from our duty of care and our obligations under international law. Where are the guarantees from this government that asylum seekers will be protected from threats to their physical safety, wherever they are housed in our care, and treated with dignity and respect? Immigration detention, both within Australia and offshore, is no place for children and I support every effort to move children and their families out of detention and into the community as soon as possible.

I implore the government: to adopt Labor's commitments to doubling the refugee intake, to massively increasing support for UNHCR, to establishing an independent children's advocate, to imposing mandatory reporting of child abuse in our facilities, to introducing independent oversight of all Australian-funded detention facilities and to restoring measures to ensure that refugee claims are processed as quickly as possible, so we are not leaving people in a permanent state of unknowing. It is time to stop this toxic debate in Australian politics around asylum seekers and, instead, work to form genuine, respectful partnerships with organisations like Save the Children and UNHCR to break the deadlock.

Debate adjourned.