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Project SafeCom News and Updates 30 March 2006
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Project SafeCom
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Mar 29, 2006 14:08 PST
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Project SafeCom News and Updates 30 March 2006
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¤ - In this Edition - ¤
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1. First round of Alvarez talks completed
2. Mentally ill man kept in detention for six years
3. Vanstone pressed on 'Mr X'
4. Cameroon athletes found in Perth
5. SBS Dateline: West Papua - Long Boat to Freedom
6. SBS Dateline: Sabam Siagian Interview
7. Canberra mocked on Papuans
8. Cartoon sends Papua row to new low
9. West Papua: Reluctant Indonesians
10. West Papua: The Act of No Choice
11. West Papua problem is here to stay
12. Lawyers question ASIO powers bill
13. Visa curbs to keep hate preachers out
14. Bringing the ABC to Heel
15. Rights bill a matter for judgement
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=============================
1. First round of Alvarez talks completed
=============================
Sydney Morning Herald
March 29, 2006 - 9:56PM
The first stage of compensation hearings for wrongly-deported woman Vivian
Alvarez have concluded in Sydney with her lawyers saying substantial
progress has been made.
Ms Alvarez's legal team and the federal government began arbitration on
Monday to determine the compensation she will receive for the four years
she spent in a Filipino hospice following her deportation from Australia in
2001.
Ms Alvarez, also known as Vivian Solon, was deported when authorities
incorrectly assumed her to be an illegal immigrant, after she was injured
in a car accident at Lismore, in northern NSW.
She was eventually found and returned to Australia late last year and has
been receiving medical treatment.
"Milne Berry Berger, solicitors for Ms Solon, and the commonwealth have
both acknowledged that substantial progress has been made this week on the
consideration of Ms Alvarez's claims," her lawyers said in statement.
"Milne Berry Berger and the commonwealth also highlighted the commitment of
all involved in the arbitration process to resolving Ms Alvarez's claims
for compensation in a timely manner."
Ms Alvarez's legal team, headed by former Federal Court judge Marcus
Einfeld, is seeking compensation - tipped to be in the millions of dollars
- for medical expenses, loss of earnings, pain and suffering, and exemplary
damages.
The parties will return to arbitration on April 24.
© 2006 AAP
http://smh.com.au/news/National/First-round-of-Alvarez-talks-completed/2006/03/29/1143441216217.html
===================================
2. Mentally ill man kept in detention for six years
===================================
ABC ONLINE NEWS
Thursday, March 30, 2006. 1:06am (AEDT)
The Commonwealth Ombudsman has revealed in a report to Parliament that a
mentally ill man, who is dependent on insulin, has been held in immigration
detention for six years.
The man who is known as Mr X, says he is from Bangladesh, but his home
country has declined to recognise him and Australian authorities have
refused to grant him a protection visa.
The man arrived in Australia in 1999 and has been in detention ever since.
The Ombudsman recommends that Mr X should receive a permanent visa and
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone says she will make a decision soon.
Labor's Tony Burke says the case is a shocking reflection on the
Immigration Department.
"My greatest concern is that the department was seriously considering
deporting a man to Bangladesh, a man who was mentally ill, physically ill
in the certain knowledge that on arrival he would be stateless and within
two to three weeks he would die," he said.
"The Minister should immediately rule out what the department was
considering as unthinkable."
Mr X has spent the past four months in a mental hospital.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200603/s1604173.htm
======================
3. Vanstone pressed on 'Mr X'
======================
The Age
By Andra Jackson
March 30, 2006
THE Commonwealth Ombudsman has called on Immigration Minister Amanda
Vanstone to grant Australia's longest-serving detainee — a man who claims
to have fled persecution in Bangladesh — a special humanitarian visa.
Ombudsman John McMillan said the stateless man, who is being held in
Adelaide's Glenside psychiatric hospital and is referred to as Mr X, "has a
serious mental illness as a result of his lengthy detention".
Mr McMillan said a special global humanitarian visa would give Mr X
permanency and avoid a further delay in the case, which "could forseeably
damage his mental health to a greater extent".
Mr X arrived in Australia by boat in 1999 claiming to have fled persecution
as a member of a political party in Bangladesh.
His claim for protection and subsequent appeals were turned down and he has
been detained for 6½ years, the past seven months at Glenside.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has asked Australia to
hold off on deportation while it investigates a complaint by Mr X that the
Government ignored his claim that his life would be in danger when it tried
to deport him in 2004.
But in his latest report on 32 long-term detainees, tabled in Parliament
yesterday, Mr McMillan said the Immigration Department was still
considering deportation.
The Bangladesh high commissioner has refused to issue travel documents, and
India, his nominated preferred country, has also refused to accept him.
Senator Vanstone said she would give urgent attention to the case but did
not rule out his return to Baxter detention centre.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/vanstone-pressed-on-mr-x/2006/03/29/1143441219788.html
==========================
4. Cameroon athletes found in Perth
==========================
news.com.au
From: AAP
March 29, 2006
TWO Cameroon athletes from the Commonwealth Games team were seeking legal
assistance in Perth, a refugee advocate said today.
It is understood a refugee advocate met the athletes at East Perth railway
station yesterday, after they travelled across the Nullarbor on the Indian
Pacific train.
The Coalition for Asylum Seekers Refugees and Detainees (CARAD) said today
the two were receiving legal advice.
But spokeswoman Rosemary Hudson-Miller said CARAD would not be making any
public statements at this stage.
"We have put them in touch with a lawyer and have assisted them with their
welfare requests", Ms Hudson-Miller said.
An immigration department spokesman said the men were lawfully in Perth
because their special purpose visas were valid until April 26.
"They are lawfully in Australia, the necessary people have been informed
and they are safe and well," the spokesman said.
Twenty-five Commonwealth Games athletes from Sierra Leone, Cameroon,
Bangladesh and Tanzania failed to return as expected to the Games village
between March 21 and 26, Victorian police said.
Nine athletes from Cameroon were reported missing by their team manager on
March 26.
Of the 25 athletes reported missing, nine had still not been located,
Victorian Police said today.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18643422-29277,00.html
=======================================
5. SBS Dateline: West Papua - Long Boat to Freedom
=======================================
SBS Dateline
With George Negus
Archives - March 29, 2006
Back in mid-January, when 43 asylum seekers came ashore in far north
Queensland, pretty quickly, the Howard Government found itself in a
political bind. Indonesian President Yudhoyono was straight on the phone to
John Howard promising in effect, "Send them back. They won't be harmed when
they get here." But at the same time, the West Papuans were telling
Immigration officials they feared the worst if they returned.
Last week, when they were granted temporary visas, there were howls of
outrage from Jakarta and the Indonesian Ambassador to Canberra was hastily
withdrawn in protest. The fracas is now being described as the worst rift
in our relations with Indonesia since Australian troops were sent to East
Timor six years ago.
Late last week, Dateline's Mark Davis managed to get himself to Christmas
Island, where he met with the refugees to find out just why they made their
hair-raising voyage.
REPORTER: Mark Davis.
All sorts of people have washed ashore on Christmas Island but none quite
like this. These West Papuan men have just been released from detention.
Today they are re-united with their families, housed in the suburbs above
the town.
HERMAN WANGAI, ACTIVIST: Good day for us West Papuan people. We heard from
Australian Government yesterday that we have protection visa for three years.
It's hard to imagine 43 of these men, women and children crammed into an
outrigger canoe for five weeks, lost at sea, without food or water, for the
last four days. They survived an incredible journey through treacherous
seas and now a political storm is breaking around them.
HERMAN WANGAI: I just want to say, just thank you.
REPORTER: Indonesia is very angry.
HERMAN WANGAI: Yeah, but for me and my friends, Indonesia angry just for
one day but for West Papuan people, we suffering for 40 years.
Herman Wangai, a well known independence activist in West Papua, led the
exodus which included his wife Ferra, also an activist, and their two
children.
HERMAN WANGAI: If Australian Government send me back to West Papua, I will
die. That is reality. I don't want to talk lies, because we have
experienced under control of Indonesia military.
Indonesian intelligence were closing in around Wangai late last year for
his activities. He'd already served 2.5 years in prison for raising the
outlawed West Papuan flag, a serious and often deadly offence in Indonesian
West Papua.
HERMAN WANGAI: 2004, I completed my prison...
REPORTER: And this was for a flag-raising, was it?
HERMAN WANGAI: Yes, raising a flag in West Papua.
Herman and friends were planning another flag-rasing for December 1 last year.
HERMAN WANGAI: I have to escape.
Their involvement became known to the authorities. Fearing a wave of
arrests, Herman and co. set out to sea.
This group are a mixture of urban students and bush activists, all of them
serial flag-raisers for the independence movement.
HERMAN WANGAI: All of us are activists from Jakarta, a lot are from West
Papua, in Jayapura.
REPORTER: But why now, why this year?
HERMAN WANGAI: Yes in West Papua the situation now is very risky, a very
bad situation because you know every way in West Papua, especially in
Jayapura town the military take over every place, district and especially
in university. They come to university to find out who are West Papuan
activists.
Since the loss of East Timor, thousands more police and military have been
deployed in West Papua. In the remote highlands, tribal protests and flag
raisings have been met with deadly force. In the towns, the students,
including many of the refugees, have risked their liberty, even their
lives, through a string of protests in recent years.
MAN, (Translation): We were intimidated and terrorised, slandered and
beaten, so we the Papuan people and students in particular, organised
protests demanding justice in West Papua from the Indonesian government.
This was a good opportunity for the Indonesian government, military and
police to kill us with guns.
All but one of the refugees are now free but not all are free of fear.
YOUNG MAN: I saw with my eyes, plenty people die. Blood all over the place.
I am just crying and pray that all of my friends run to the jungle...
This young man still fears reprisals against his family in West Papua but
wants to tell of the things he has seen in recent years.
YOUNG MAN: A lot of army come to our village and we can not run and we hear
a gun. Plenty people die. Student, old ladies, child and I am just crying
with my friends.
A witness to a massacre, an activist himself, he also faces another danger,
unique to many in his group - he is the son of a well-known independence
leader, making him a special target for Indonesian intelligence.
YOUNG MAN: My father was arrested, in jail, by military in Indonesia and
the effect of that is I am not free to get school and stuff like that.
The most remarkable story belongs to four children who came alone on the
boat, without their parents.
REPORTER: And what happens today? What is special about today?
BOY, (Translation): We’re sad to be leaving our teachers and our friends at
this school.
Today is their last day at Christmas Island Public School, where they have
been studying for the last two months.
BOY, (Translation): We like it a lot, school here is really disciplined,
disciplined and advanced.
An ordinary Australian morning for boys who have had anything but an
ordinary childhood.
REPORTER: The Indonesian army killed your grandfather? How did they kill him?
BOY, (Translation): They shot him.
REPORTER: Because he was activist?
BOY 1, (Translation): Yes.
Most of the children in this group, including some older teenage girls, who
do not wish to appear, are from remote highland villages. Their fathers,
living in the jungle, constantly hunted by the Indonesian army.
BOY 2, (Translation): My father is a freedom fighter, his life is never
easy. He’s always being chased, he’s been arrested and terrorised. My
father has a hard time, he sleeps in the jungle.
BOY 1, (Translation): My father was chased by Indonesian troops, by TNI
troops, he was chased and terrorised. My grandfather was shot and thrown
into the sea. No he was thrown into the river. Some people were shot dead
with guns, some were hung by the neck.
Their fathers, fearing that their own lives may soon end, made the
heart-rending decision to send their children into exile. For most of the
boys, it was the first time they'd ever seen the sea.
BOY, (Translation): When we were on the boat we cried and called out to our
fathers “Dad, we really don’t want to go on this journey” and we called out
to God “God help us”.
BOY, (Translation): We’re going to study and learn English so we can speak
English, English is important to us because we live in Australia now.
Whatever traumas they have suffered in West Papua, and on their journey,
these people have been treated well by officials here and welcomed by many
residents. Christmas Island has been kind to them. It's lunchtime at the
Chinese Literary Association and the West Papuans are guests of honour.
GORDON THOMPSON, SHIRE PRESIDENT: The West Papuan group are all flying out
today, and it is very important I think, that we have a meal together to
say farewell.
Christmas Island Shire President, Gordon Thompson, has openly welcomed the
Papuans.
GORDON THOMPSON: 70% of the island is National Park, so it’s forest.
He is proud of his island but fears that its future will not be tourism but
as an Australian Government prison.
GORDON THOMPSON: The reason we do not want Christmas Island to be a
detention centre I guess, is because we do not believe that people who are
fleeing repressive governments, should be locked up at all.
REPORTER: So, the official position of the Shire is you do not want them.
GORDON THOMPSON: We do not have the decision-making power for we would
like. We should have. Behold.
Gordon may hope that the Christmas Island is not seen as a prison bad is
well on the way to becoming that. This centre, due to be finished next
year, is likely to replace the so called Pacific solution, a remote holding
centre where certain Australian laws will not apply. The Papuans are now
waiting for the weather to clear and for a charter flight to take them to
Melbourne. A radically new life awaits all of them, but especially the boys
from the bush.
REPORTER: Have you seen a big city before, what’s the biggest city you’ve
seen before?
BOY, (Translation): Only in a photo.
REPORTER: In Melbourne, it is very big, it’s like Jayapura times one
thousand, 4 million people.
The Papuans are largely oblivious to the political debate that will
surround them in Australia, on Christmas Island it is just a time for
goodbye’s and thank you’s.
HERMAN WANGAI: We come under pressure, military government of Indonesia.
Without you praying, without you supper, we can in short time, we can get
protection visa from Australian government. You are friendly people, you
are kindest people, also Gordon Thompson, thank you for your supper.
www.sbs.com.au/dateline/
=============================
6. SBS Dateline: Sabam Siagian Interview
=============================
SBS Dateline
With George Negus
Archives - March 29, 2006
Do we have another East Timor on our hands here? A few years back, now,
Sabam Siagian was Indonesia's man in Canberra. These days, he's back in his
old journalistic life as Senior Editor at the 'Jakarta Post' newspaper and
earlier today, George Negus talked with him.
GEORGE NEGUS: Mr Siagian, as a person who's familiar with both sides of
this argument, do you think this refugee visa issue is a storm in a teacup
or as some people are suggesting, the worst rift in relations between
Australia and Indonesia since this country sent troops to East Timor?
SABAM SIAGIAN, FORMER AMBASSADOR TO AUSTRALIA: Well, it's neither a hiccup
nor a calamity but I think this case shows that there must be increased
awareness on the Australian side that the current democratic Indonesia is
full of - what shall I say? - sense of participation in the political
process and alertness about the bilateral relationship.
GEORGE NEGUS: Your newspaper reported today in fact, that Indonesia has no
plans to sever diplomatic ties with Australia because it granted refugee
status to this group of West Papuans but, that said, this is not over yet,
by a long way. What if more people were to appear on the northern
Australian coastline and to be granted visas in the same way?
SABAM SIAGIAN: I would say, given the shifting geopolitical context in the
Asia-Pacific, whatever agency and whoever is making the decisions in
Australia, they should be aware about the current sensitivities in a large
neighbour as Indonesia. And, if I may continue, George, it does not mean
that, if a case like this comes up, principles of human rights are not
being considered. It does mean, however, that continuous communication
should be maintained.
For instance, in this case, after the arrival last January, you know, not
suddenly a decision, like now, if they say or they have said or they have
claimed, the 43 refugees, that they have fled Papua because there is
"genocide" in Papua, and that's a strong word, George, then the
Australians, you know, to be fair, would say, we're going to send somebody
- either a senior judge or whatever - to look into the matter, whether
there is indeed cases of genocide in Papua, and then publish it, you know?
What I am advocating is, George, a more phased process of coping with
requests for asylum and not, sort of, a unilateral decision as perceived by
Indonesians.
GEORGE NEGUS: Would you agree with an MP from Jakarta who is, in fact, a
member of the powerful foreign affairs commission, Djoko Susilo, when he
says that he believes that giving asylum to these people means that
Australia has confirmed what they are claiming, which are in fact acts of
genocide, persecution, imprisonment of physical abuse of torture and even
possible execution they say.
SABAM SIAGIAN: You do create that kind of perception, you know. That's the
trouble with this case. By making that kind of unilateral decision all the
built-up reserve of goodwill between the two countries, especially since
President SBY is in office, evaporates - that's my concern from a person
that cares very much for the friendship between our two countries, George.
GEORGE NEGUS: We've spoken to these people, one of our reporters, and they
are basically saying that if they go back to Jakarta, or West Papua, they
fear imprisonment, they fear possible execution.
SABAM SIAGIAN: Yeah, but you know very well, our President has stated very
clearly, if I'm not mistaken, to Prime Minister Howard himself in a phone
conversation, that he guarantees that will not happen.
GEORGE NEGUS: He might make that guarantee but what about the Indonesian
police and security in West Papua? What about them?
SABAM SIAGIAN: If you do not trust our President's words what's the use of
maintaining this bilateral relationship, George?
GEORGE NEGUS: Promises have been made before, the West Papuans would claim,
and people have lost their lives.
SABAM SIAGIAN: Not since President SBY has stated, so don't refer to
previous cases. I mean, he has gone to Australia, he is well accepted. Do
you trust him or not? That's the point.
GEORGE NEGUS: I think most people would agree that President SBY is
honourable in his intentions but what control does he have over the
Indonesian military when it comes to a place like West Papua?
SABAM SIAGIAN: You leave that to us, George. Are you questioning... Do you
want us a neighbour or don't you want it?
GEORGE NEGUS: What do you think would happen if 50 more people were to
arrive in Australia tomorrow and the Government gave them visas, and then
another 50 and then another 50?
SABAM SIAGIAN: Apparently you didn't listen to me before. If anyone comes
up then the whole approach should be different. The approach should be,
here we are dealing with a good friend, our large neighbour, and the future
of Australia also depends on the future of a democratic and stable
Indonesia. Now, how do we handle this?
GEORGE NEGUS: How else should they handle it, because Alexander Downer does
say that this is a case-by-case thing?
SABAM SIAGIAN: Foreign Minister Downer says it's not up to him, it's up to
the Minister for Immigration and an independent agency out of that so the
whole process should be carried by taking seriously the geopolitical
context of our relationship.
The whole map is shifting now, George, so if these things come up it cannot
only view that case per se. It does not mean that we expect Australia to
give up its principles of human rights - no.
But the way you handle it, by maintaining continuous dialogue with your
largest neighbour friend, that's what we want and not suddenly a unilateral
decision announced.
GEORGE NEGUS: Could I ask you a broader question - some people say that
what we are looking at here is another East Timor, that Indonesia seems to
have learned nothing from that experience and the situation could
deteriorate along the same lines?
SABAM SIAGIAN: Yes, George, you are wasting your words, you know. I mean,
given this short interview I stay away from comparing it with East Timor
because there is much more to it.
GEORGE NEGUS: Why is it different where East Timor was concerned? Why is it
wrong to compare the two?
SABAM SIAGIAN: In the case of Papua, it's part of Indonesia, we care for
it, our Vice-President pays attention to it, I have visited it many times,
I am a member of Forum Papua, an NGO comprising of intellectuals, lawyers
and so forth, so we are in constant touch with the leadership of the Papua
People's Council, so I mean, by from the outset always linking it with the
possibility of "East Timor" you create an atmosphere that's not conducive
and not constructive George.
GEORGE NEGUS: Spoken like the diplomat that you once were. It's good
talking to you again.
SABAM SIAGIAN: OK, George, take care.
www.sbs.com.au/dateline/
=======================
7. Canberra mocked on Papuans
=======================
The Age
By Mark Forbes
March 30, 2006
AUSTRALIA'S decision to grant asylum to 42 Papuan asylum seekers has
reignited Indonesian derision of Prime Minister John Howard, with one
newspaper depicting him as a dingo fornicating with Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer over West Papua.
Yesterday's Jakarta Post featured a cartoon on a marsupial theme, with
Australia depicted as a kangaroo sheltering Papuan separatists in its pouch.
The dingo cartoon, run on the front page of the Rakyat Merdeka newspaper,
titled "the Adventure of Two Dingo (sic)" has Mr Howard demanding of Mr
Downer, "I want Papua Alex! You try to play it."
Since last week's decision, most major newspapers have given the issue
front-page coverage and featured editorials condemning the granting of
asylum. They have suggested Australia is attempting to engineer West
Papua's independence, with resentment still lingering over Australian
support for East Timor's independence.
Under a headline "Kangaroo Country who always disturbs", the influential
Media Indonesia newspaper stated the move "proves that Australia has
meddled in Indonesia's internal affairs".
"The speculation that Australia has been behind the separatism in Papua
bears some truth," its editorial states. "The granting of visas is crystal
clear evidence that Australia has applied a double standard.
"It is not the first time this country cornered us. The case of East Timor
in 1999 is still fresh in our memory."
Under Mr Howard, Indonesian-Australian relations were often tense as Asia
was a low priority, the paper said, comparing him with his predecessor Paul
Keating, who wanted to be "best friends" with Indonesia.
The criticisms have been echoed in most major newspapers. Kompas said
Indonesia had been deceived by statements from Australia recognising
Indonesia's sovereignty, citing East Timor as a precedent.
¦A memorial service for nine Australians who died on Indonesia's quake-hit
Nias island last year will go ahead this weekend despite the bitter row
over Canberra's granting of visas to the Papuan asylum seekers.
Just a day after a senior military spokesman raised doubts over whether the
ceremony would go ahead, Jakarta said Indonesia's director-general of
defence strategy, Major-General Dadi Susanto, would attend Sunday's ceremony.
Veterans Affairs Minister Bruce Billson will lead the Australian delegation.
The nine died after their Sea King helicopter crashed during a rescue
mission following a massive magnitude 8.7 earthquake on Nias last April.
The Australian navy is taking about 30 relatives of the servicemen and
women killed in the crash to Nias.
With AAP
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/canberra-mocked-on-papuans/2006/03/29/1143441216022.html
=============================
8. Cartoon sends Papua row to new low
=============================
Sydney Morning Herald
March 29, 2006 - 7:17PM
One of Indonesia's biggest-selling newspapers has depicted John Howard and
Alexander Downer as a pair of sex-crazed dingoes, dragging media outrage
over the Papua visa row down to a new low.
The front page of the Islamic-leaning Rakyat Merdeka (People's Freedom)
newspaper was dominated by the cartoon of the two having sex under a palm
tree on an otherwise barren island signposted "Papua".
Headlined "The adventure of two dingo" (sic), the drawing shows the prime
minister as the dominant dog, shaking as he tells the foreign minister: "I
want Papua!! Alex! Try to make it happen!"
A small Australian flag hangs off the PM's wagging tail.
In the wake of Australia's decision to grant visas to 42 Papuan asylum
seekers, Indonesian nationalists accuse Canberra of secretly plotting
Papua's breakaway from Jakarta's grasp, likening it to the 1999
independence crisis in East Timor.
The lurid caricature is the worst-taste example of a new Papua cartoon
craze in the Indonesian media since the row flared last week.
The media's response has perhaps been given added edge by still-simmering
anger in Indonesia over the Prophet Mohammed cartoon furore.
Another Jakarta paper depicted the hairy arm of a gorilla labelled as
Australia shaking hands with a suit and cufflink-clad Indonesian arm.
The English-language Jakarta Post newspaper, read by most foreigners in
Indonesia, showed a furious Indonesian eagle staring at the rear of a
retreating kangaroo, with the bird's chicks in its pouch flying a Papuan
independence flag.
"Don't worry, it's just temporary," the kangaroo is saying.
The same image was adopted by protesters rallying outside Australia's
Jakarta embassy this week when some painted obscenities on its walls.
They carried banners of an eagle swooping to grasp the bloodstained neck of
a kangaroo, shouting "Die kangaroo".
As nationalist MPs continue to criticise Canberra and with more protests
held today in Madura and outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta,
Indonesia's cartoonists won't be laying down pencils anytime soon.
Meanwhile, a memorial service for nine Australians who died on Indonesia's
quake-hit Nias island last year will go ahead this weekend despite the
bitter row over Canberra's granting of visas to 42 Papuan asylum seekers.
Just a day after a senior military spokesman raised doubts over whether the
ceremony would go ahead, Jakarta said Indonesia's director-general of
defence strategy, Major General Dadi Susanto, would attend Sunday's ceremony.
Veterans Affairs Minister Bruce Billson will lead the Australian delegation.
Letters of invitation had been sent to the chiefs of the Indonesian army,
navy and air force, as well as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
In Canberra Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the ceremony would
honour nine Australians whose deaths represented something "way beyond
politics".
The nine died after their Sea King helicopter crashed during a rescue
mission following a massive magnitude 8.7 earthquake on Nias last April.
The Australian Navy is taking about 30 relatives of the service men and
women killed in the crash to Nias, ferrying them on a C-130 Hercules and
the HMAS Tobruk.
Meanwhile nationalist outrage against Australia continues to rise.
Last week the Australian immigration department granted temporary visas to
42 of the 43 Papuans who had landed at Cape York in January seeking asylum.
Today a former Indonesian intelligence director suggested that the
unsuccessful refugee may have been an Australian-trained spy.
His claim is the latest barb directed at Canberra in the dispute.
There have also been protest rallies, the recall of Indonesia's ambassador
from Canberra and cries from several senior Indonesian lawmakers for a full
severing of relations.
Amid mounting conspiracy theories that Australia has a secret plan for a
re-run in Papua of East Timor's separation, former Indonesian intelligence
director AC Manullang wrote in the Republika newspaper that Australian and
American agents were active in the province.
Manullang was one of many senior Indonesians to make bizarre claims that
the 2002 Bali bombings were really the handiwork of the CIA or the Israeli
Mossad.
But his latest tirade reflects the mood and thoughts of many leading
Indonesians, who see Australia's visa decision as fresh evidence of a
western conspiracy to break up and weaken the world's most populous Muslim
nation.
"Intelligence reports show that Indonesians - in this case Papuans - have
long been recruited by foreign intelligence agencies, including Australia's
Office of National Assessments, to stir up Indonesia," he said, questioning
why one Papuan had not been given a visa.
"The one Papuan rejected in his asylum application may be an intelligence
agent of Australia.
"Information shows that preparing a ship and getting them on board was the
central part of an Australian intelligence effort to create an image that
there is no comfort or security in Papua."
He said Australia was using the same diplomatic tactics it used in the
leadup to East Timor's 1999 independence vote, which ended in a bloody
rampage by pro-Jakarta militiamen.
The spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has dismissed demands
for a severing of diplomatic ties, while Mr Downer has called for calm.
AAP
http://smh.com.au/news/world/cartoon-sends-papua-row-to-new-low/2006/03/29/1143441208461.html
============================
9. West Papua: Reluctant Indonesians
============================
New Matilda
By: Clinton Fernandes
Wednesday 29 March 2006
In February, a month before the Department of Immigration issued temporary
protection visas to 42 West Papuans, Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander
Downer went to Jakarta for discussions with his Indonesian counterpart
Hassan Wirajuda. He explained that the Department of Immigration's
forthcoming decision would be constrained by international law and treaty
obligations, and did not reflect Australia's foreign policy towards
Indonesia. Downer reiterated Australia's support for Indonesian sovereignty
over West Papua and for President Yudhoyono's 'special autonomy' package
for the province.
Soon after Downer's visit, Australia's Ambassador to the US Dennis
Richardson addressed the US-Indonesia Society in Washington DC. He
reaffirmed that 'Papua is part of the sovereign territory of Indonesia and
always has been. As far as Australia is concerned, Papua is an integral
part of Indonesia.'
The Ambassador went on to ask whether 'those whose raison d'être was East
Timor' had simply adopted the cause of West Papua. According to a report in
the Daily Telegraph on 10 March, Ambassador Richardson's remarks were so
supportive that Indonesia's Ambassador to the US, who was also present at
the meeting, joked that he may soon be out of a job.
In fact, there is truth to Richardson's assertion that many of the same
people who were involved in East Timor are now instrumental in what is
happening in West Papua - but in ways that Australia's diplomats may not
want publicised.
One such person is Indonesia's current Ambassador to the US, S
Parnohadiningrat, who was secretary of the Indonesian Task Force for the
ballot in East Timor in 1999. The debacle that ensued left Indonesia's
international reputation in tatters.
Another is Mahidin Simbolon, the military commander now in charge of West
Papua, who was previously deputy commander of the military region that
included East Timor. Simbolon served at least six tours of duty in East
Timor. He led the operation to capture Xanana Gusmao in 1992 and was a key
actor in the Indonesian military's campaign of State-sponsored terror
against the East Timorese people. In 2001, Simbolon was promoted to Major
General and given command of West Papua. The same militia terror tactics
from East Timor began to be employed there soon afterwards.
Even the US-Indonesia Society was established after the Dili Massacre in
order to counter the challenge posed by the East Timor solidarity movement
in the US. But it was unable to mount a successful defence of the
Indonesian military's human rights record because every time it argued that
improvements were being made, events on the ground proved otherwise.
The Indonesian Military (TNI) is still coming to terms with its loss of
power in a democratising Indonesia. In the post-Suharto era, it is locked
in a struggle for supremacy with the civilian authorities.
Since coming to power in 2004, President Yudhoyono's actions indicate that
he is trying to bring the TNI more firmly under civilian authority: he
replaced the hardliner Ryamizard Ryacudu with the more moderate Djoko
Santoso as Army Chief of Staff, and promoted his classmates from the Class
of 1973 and his brothers-in-law, Erwin Sujono and Pramono Edhie Wibowo, to
senior military positions, indicating his desire to have trusted personnel
in key positions.
President Yudhoyono's 'war on illegal logging' should also be understood in
the context of his determination to end the military's network of illegal
businesses.
The TNI still receives only 30 per cent of its budget from the Government,
with the rest coming from its network of legal and illegal businesses. The
remote and resource-rich West Papua - where the military runs illegal
businesses such as logging and human, arms and drug trafficking, and is
building up troops and raising militias to terrorise the population -
provides a significant source of income.
In this sense, West Papua is a test case for Indonesia's democratic
transition.
Australia's plans to strengthen its defence engagement with Indonesia in
the form of joint exercises and training is a blow to this process. This
co-operative military agreement may well have the consequence - whatever
the intention - of supporting hard-line military elements against the more
moderate elements of Indonesian society. It will not improve the military's
human rights abuses but legitimise them. An alternative would be to openly
declare that the Indonesian military is not under civilian authority, and
that there will be no military ties until things have changed.
Even at this late stage, there is still a chance that the West Papuans will
be able to negotiate their grievances within the territorial limits of
Indonesia. As the anthropologist Brigham Golden has pointed out, the Papuan
catchcry of 'merdeka' is commonly understood as an ideology of political
independence, but can also be understood as 'a moral crusade for peace and
social justice on earth.'
Unfortunately, Australia's military engagement with Indonesia and the
continuing ban on foreign media in West Papua may mean that the window of
opportunity is closing. If it does, a reinvigorated solidarity movement for
West Papua may be an unwelcome reminder to Alexander Downer of what he said
in his first speech as the Coalition's foreign affairs spokesman: 'We
cannot simply speak with a loud voice when injustice occurs on the other
side of the world, whilst whispering softly or remaining silent when
similar events take place within our own region.'
About the author
Dr Clinton Fernandes is the author of Reluctant Saviour: Australia,
Indonesia and the Independence of East Timor (Scribe, 2004)
http://www.newmatilda.com/home/articledetailmagazine.asp?ArticleID=1469&HomepageID=134
===========================
10. West Papua: The Act of No Choice
===========================
New Matilda
By: Marni Cordell
Wednesday 29 March 2006
'Sam' is a West Papuan who lives and studies in Melbourne. Before coming to
Australia he was heavily involved in student activism against the
Indonesian military's role in West Papua, and is still in contact with
student activists at Cenderawasih University campus in Abepura, on the
outskirts of the capital Jayapura, where the latest clash between police
and Papuans took place on 16 March.
'I went to jail for six months for protesting against Indonesia's role in
West Papua,' he says. Although there has been no official confirmation of
deaths, according to Sam's contacts, six West Papuans have died since the
16 March clash, and as many as 150 were injured, including high school
students.
Late last week Democrats Senator Natasha Stott Despoja told reporters she
had received information from a 'reliable source' in West Papua of 16
deaths in reprisal attacks after the protests.
This week Alex Rayfield from the Australia West Papua Association also
received independent reports that 16 people have been disappeared, and
there are grave concerns for another 75-80 who are in jail.
The deaths have not been confirmed.
Since late February, there have been a number of protests by West Papuan
civil society groups and students demanding the closure of the
Freeport-McMoRan mining operations around Timika in the south of West
Papua, which include the world's largest gold and copper mine, Grasberg.
West Papuans argue that they suffer the environmental consequences but do
not receive revenue from the mine, and that human rights abuses are
regularly committed by the Indonesian forces that act as security for the
company.
On 16 March protestors gathered near Cenderawasih University, where they
felled coconut palms and piled up tyres to block the Abepura-Sentani
highway. The Indonesian Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) moved in to remove
the blockade, and a violent confrontation broke out.
Rayfield has had contact with a number of people in the area, since the
protests. 'My sources say that there was someone in the crowd who threw a
rock. Then the police opened fire, and that's when the crowd turned,' he
said. Three police officers and a soldier were killed.
Locals say reprisal attacks by the police began immediately. Rayfield was
told by one source that police had talked about 'hunting West Papuans down'
-- regardless of whether they were present at the protest.
'The army got involved and Brimob were kicking down the doors of people's
homes and student ashrams (dormitories), pulling people out and beating
them,' he said. 'They were shooting at cars with West Papuans in them. Even
the head of police went down to restore order, and at one stage the police
just ignored them. It was total breakdown.'
Since the protests, Rayfield has received phone calls and text messages
from a number of witnesses and victims, including information that Albert
Rumbekwan, a local human rights lawyer, was intimidated by police and asked
not to investigate the incident. The staff of West Papuan human rights
watchdog, Elsham, who were monitoring the demonstration were searched and
their movements have been limited through fear of arrest and detention.
One text message listed eight student accommodation dorms that had been
raided by police. They are: Nayak, Nimig, Mimika, Cemo, Uncen (unit 6),
Kinaonak, Maro and Moni.
Another read: 'Many people's houses destroyed. Many Papuan citizens were
shot and tortured. There are large numbers of victims and the people aren't
allowed to move anywhere. The torture has caused wounding. Please forward
this to your networks from Papua.'
Last night Rayfield received a text message that said a student had just
been shot dead.
'This is similar to the Abepura case in 2000,' he says, 'when one Brimob
was killed [in an attack on the Abepura police station] and they went on a
revenge attack, arrested or tortured over one hundred students, killed
three in detention and another later died.' (Read New Matilda's coverage of
the case here).
According to Sam, those involved in the protest on 16 March had three main
demands: that the Freeport-McMoRan mine be closed until an agreement is
drawn up between the mine operators and the West Papuan people; that all
combat troops be withdrawn from West Papua; and that a dialogue take place
about the controversial Act of Free Choice (under which Indonesia was
handed control of the province), with third party negotiators.
'[Protestors believe that] if they shut down Freeport-McMoRan there will be
no money to support the military to enable all the other mining and human
rights abuses,' says Sam. They also want to draw attention to the fact that
Indonesia signed the contract for Freeport-McMoRan to mine in West Papua in
1962, a year before it had official control of the territory.
West Papua was colonised by the Netherlands in the 19th century and
incorporated as part of the Dutch East Indies. But Dutch sovereignty was
not relinquished at the same time as the rest of the archipelago, which
gained independence as the Republic of Indonesia in 1949.
The Netherlands continued to administer the province until 1962, when --
amid increasing international pressure and in dispute with Indonesia -- its
control was officially transferred to a United Nations transitional
government, under a UN-backed agreement known as the 'New York Agreement.'
Under this agreement, administration of West Papua was officially handed to
Indonesia the year after, with the provision that Indonesia would hold a
referendum after a period of six years in which the people of West Papua
would vote on whether to integrate.
The referendum, known as the Act of Free Choice (but later dubbed the 'Act
of No Choice'), was held in 1969, under questionable circumstances. Only
1022 of the 800,000-strong population were permitted to vote -- ostensibly
as community representatives -- and it is now widely understood that the
selected voters were coerced, threatened and closely scrutinised by armed
Indonesian security personnel to unanimously vote for integration with
Indonesia.
West Papuans argue that their integration with Indonesia was a denial of
their fundamental right to self-determination.
John Rumbiak is a West Papuan human rights investigator who has worked
tirelessly to uncover abuses undertaken by the Indonesian military in West
Papua.
In an interview in 2003, Rumbiak explained that Papuans claim the whole
process of transferal to Indonesian control was fraudulent. 'However, the
Indonesian Government claims that it's over -- that Papua is an integral
part of Indonesia -- [and their] stand is supported by the international
community, regardless of the fraudulent process,' he said.
'We would like to raise it to the international community that this is the
source of the conflict.'
President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has accused
pro-independence activists in West Papua of hijacking what is essentially a
local grievance with Freeport-McMoRan, and using the recent protests to
undermine Indonesia's territorial integrity.
Rayfield says the issues are not mutually exclusive. 'There are pent up
strong feelings and anger [in West Papua] -- not just at the 40 years of
injustice and oppression, but also specifically towards the security
apparatus and Brimob in particular.'
'West Papuans don't readily separate the anger they feel about the
Freeport-McMoRan mine from their claim for self-determination.'
One local human rights worker says people have begun to resort to violence
in West Papua because their demands for negotiation go continually unheeded:
People were protesting for one day and no one noticed or responded. So on
the second day they were frustrated. Then instead of sending in the
authorities to negotiate, they sent Brimob. Frustration was what caused
[the violence].
Meanwhile, as reprisal attacks continue, hundreds of West Papuan students
are reportedly still hiding in the jungles outside Jayapura in fear for
their lives.
Because local human rights watch organisations are being intimidated, West
Papuans are calling for an independent, international investigation into
the situation.
About the author
Marni Cordell is Associate Editor of New Matilda.
http://www.newmatilda.com/home/articledetailmagazine.asp?ArticleID=1468&HomepageID=134
=============================
11. West Papua problem is here to stay
=============================
The Age
By Michelle Grattan
March 29, 2006
FAST-FORWARD to the year 2025 and Liberal Prime Minister Sara Smith
announces that the long-standing Australian bipartisan policy in favour of
West Papua remaining part of Indonesia has been wrong. Australia will now
support independence and send troops as part of a peacekeeping effort as
the Indonesians pull out.
Far-fetched? Perhaps. But, in the late 1970s, the proposition that
Australia in the 1990s would jettison its support for Indonesian control of
East Timor would have seemed equally unrealistic.
Australia's granting of protection visas to 42 West Papuans last week, and
Indonesia's furious reaction, has highlighted the obvious: West Papua could
become a painful thorn in Australia's relations with its most important
neighbour in coming years.
During Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's presidency, this relationship has been
excellent; he and Howard get on very well.
But while the current incident will pass, the wider West Papua issue is
another matter. And it's always easy to stir some anti-Australian feeling
within Indonesia. Yesterday Yudhoyono's spokesman was rejecting nationalist
politicians' demands for a break in diplomatic relations.
Australia handled the applications from the Papuans properly, despite
Yudhoyono's pressure on Howard to do otherwise.
The Government has emphasised that officials from Immigration did the
approving. "Decisions on visa claims are made by individual decision-makers
in my department," minister Amanda Vanstone said, "in accordance with
international legal obligations and Australian domestic law." (She's right
about the process, of course, but the way the Government puts it is a nice
inversion of the principle of ministerial responsibility, a doctrine that
under John Howard has come to resemble the disappearing Cheshire cat.)
The Indonesian Government declared itself surprised and disappointed. It
deplored the decision, describing the Papuans as "self-styled 'asylum
seekers' " and "no more than economic migrants". It complained that the
decision set a counter-productive precedent, failed to take into account
Indonesian "sensitivity", and was unhelpful to that country's "serious and
sincere efforts" to solve the Papuan problems.
The decision justified speculation that elements in Australia supported the
separatist movement in Papua, the Indonesian statement said, adding that
the Australian Government "has not done anything to them".
The Indonesians' harsh response might be unsurprising, as Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer said, but it is seriously flawed.
Immigration officials followed relevant guidelines, as they should have.
Sometimes diplomatic interests and Australia's legal human rights
obligations may clash, but that doesn't mean it's the latter that should be
trashed.
Particularly disturbing is the comment that Australia has done nothing to
deal with "elements" that might support the separatist movement.
Downer reasserted that Australia recognised Indonesian sovereignty over
West Papua. As for "elements" within Australia: provided they don't
contravene the law, it's a free country.
Several years ago there was a lot of careful thinking within the Foreign
Affairs Department about West Papua and where Australia's long-term
interests lay. The conclusion was that it would not be to the advantage of
Australia, West Papua or Indonesia for the area to become independent.
Australia and other countries lobbied Indonesia to give it "special
autonomy" status. Indonesia, worried that it could fall apart as a nation
in the wake of East Timor, legislated for this in 2002. But little progress
was made and the separatist forces kept agitating.
Yudhoyono has had considerable success in dealing with tension in Aceh;
this gives hope for what he might be able to do in West Papua. But West
Papua, which contributes significantly to Indonesia's mineral exports but
has 38 per cent of its people living in deep poverty, is more complicated
than Aceh.
In a report last week, the International Crisis Group warned that the
Papuan People's Council, at the centre of the autonomy package but set up
only some five months ago, was at risk of collapsing.
The Papuans and the Indonesian authorities had had different expectations
of this body, the ICG pointed out, and its authority remains uncertain. If
it can get through the problems presently besetting it, it may become "a
genuinely representative dialogue partner with Jakarta. If it fails … local
resentment against the central government will almost certainly increase".
Yudhoyono is hostage, in large measure, to how things operate on the ground
in a difficult place.
In turn, Australia's policy in support of the status quo is hostage to how
successful the Indonesians are.
If the problems of West Papua are not addressed by the Indonesians, the
separatist movement will be fuelled.
Australia, a nearby democracy with extensive news media, is naturally
somewhere the Papuan nationalists will use to highlight their cause.
The present Australian bipartisan policy for West Papua to remain part of
Indonesia is a proper and appropriate one.
But it will only remain so if the Indonesians can run West Papua well and
in the interests of the Papuans.
Michelle Grattan is political editor.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/west-papua-problem-is-here-to-stay/2006/03/28/1143441146125.html
============================
12. Lawyers question ASIO powers bill
============================
ABC ONLINE NEWS
Wednesday, March 29, 2006. 3:48pm (AEDT)
The Law Council of Australia has raised concerns about the Federal
Government's push for a 10-year extension of ASIO's powers to question and
detain people in connection with terrorism offences.
Proposed legislation introduced into Federal Parliament today would keep
the controversial powers in place until 2016.
Last year the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security
recommended the powers be subject to a five-and-a-half year sunset clause.
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says the Government supports the bulk of
the committee's recommendations but wants the powers to remain in place
until 2016.
"The longer period will ensure that the legislation can be used over a
period the Government assesses there is likely to be a need for these
powers," he said.
The Law Council's president, John North, says the Government has not
justified the continuation of the powers.
"The Law Council is very surprised that they have put in a 10-year sunset
clause when they have not yet since 2002 used the detention power under
this act," he said.
"Our spy agency should not be involved in police work, it should gather
intelligence, not arrest possibly innocent Australians."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200603/s1603900.htm
==============================
13. Visa curbs to keep hate preachers out
==============================
The Australian
Richard Kerbaj
March 30, 2006
MUSLIM clerics entering the country on workers' visas will face stricter
conditions under a new proposal that will make it easier for the Howard
Government to kick out extremists.
The Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs is examining ways
of imposing a condition on religious worker visas to stop the hundreds of
spiritual figures coming to Australia each year from inciting "discord".
Documents obtained by The Australian reveal concern in the Immigration
Department and within the Muslim community that the visas religious workers
use to come to Australia are not tough enough.
While the clerics must be sponsored by religious organisations to qualify
for the special visas - which allow them to stay for two years - they do
not specifically outlaw them from stirring trouble.
Draft minutes from a meeting of the Muslim advisory group set up by the
Howard Government reveal plans to toughen the visa conditions.
"There is no condition on either of the visas that require an applicant not
to incite discord," the minutes show DIMA's deputy secretary, Abul Rizvi,
saying.
"The issue of imposing a condition on all visitors that they do not incite
discord in Australia is being examined, given the nature of Australian
society today and to reflect the fact that this condition is a mandatory
condition on a person entering as a religious worker under the religious
worker visa," the minutes say.
While character requirements outlined in Section 501 in the Migration Act
state that a visa applicant must not incite discord or "represent a danger
to the Australian community or a segment of the community", it is difficult
to deport a radical because there are no provisions in their visas stopping
them from preaching hate.
"Difficulties can arise if a decision is taken to cancel the visa of a
person who has incited discord in Australia," the minutes say.
DIMA does not have a database that can identify the profiles of religious
worker visa applicants, nor does it keep a religious breakdown on such
applicants, a spokesman told The Australian yesterday.
He said US citizens accounted for almost a third of the 1550 religious
worker visas issued during the 2004-05 financial year to applicants and
their families, while 46 such visas were granted to people from The
Philippines.
The spokesman said the department was conducting an inquiry into certain
visa categories, but not into religious worker visas.
"This review is ongoing and internal, and this review does not include the
religious worker visa," he said.
Religious umbrella organisations would be given powers to clear or knock
back a religious worker visa applicant under another proposal thrashed out
during last November's Muslim advisory body meeting.
"(Religious worker) visas would only be granted after clearance by the
(umbrella organisation)," the minutes say.
"And if the (umbrella organisation) withdrew support for the visa holder
during their stay in Australia, the sponsoring organisation would be forced
to withdraw its sponsorship and then (the Immigration Department) would
move to cancel the visa."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18650107%255E2702,00.html
=====================
14. Bringing the ABC to Heel
=====================
New Matilda
By: Hilary Mcphee
Wednesday 29 March 2006
Picture the scene. A small, badly lit studio in Melbourne’s ABC Radio
National. It is 9:45am. Ramona Koval is getting ready to host the daily
Book Show which she, her producer and a staff of two present every weekday.
Now, she is online to Sydney keying in links and fades, changing the music,
checking equipment. As the 10 o’clock news comes on, she belts down the
corridor for some research notes her computer has failed to print.
At 10:05 she’s on air, communicating with that combination of lightness of
touch, thorough research and ability to ask probing questions that have
made her a broadcaster of international standing — one of the Edinburgh
Festival’s top interviewers, with many of the literary giants of our age
eating out of her hand.
Ramona Koval has been the staff-elected Director on the ABC Board since
2002. During her incumbency, the Board had to undo the disastrous
appointment as Managing Director of Jonathan Shier; then put Russell
Balding in his place; and is now preparing the way for Kim Dalton. There
has been a complete turnover of Board appointments by the Howard Government
— each new Director publicly declaring agendas to vigorously reform, root
out bias, curb over-spending, enforce balance. Not one has gone public with
a commitment to the principle of public broadcasting — their agendas
seeming to have more to do with the corporate and commercial worlds.
The ABC Board has mutely suffered a substantial decrease in funding (in
real terms) compared to the 1996-97 levels. What goes on behind the scenes
is confidential, but it is hard to find evidence of the Board’s vigorous
lobbying for more funds.
On another day, Koval has been up since 5:00am. She flies to Sydney on
Thursday at 6:30am to attend the March Board meeting. She’ll be back late
Thursday night, to be on deck for her show on Friday morning.
Meanwhile, Sir Maurice Newman AC has had a good week. The Australian Stock
Exchange, of which he is Chairman, has just agreed to buy the country’s
biggest futures market for AUD$2.25 billion, creating a virtual monopoly on
equities and futures and an extremely powerful investment vehicle — which
Sir Maurice will also chair.
Even otherwise engaged as he was in the takeover, Sir Maurice might have
permitted himself a little frisson of satisfaction at the announcement on
Friday by the Minister for Communications, Senator Helen Coonan, that in
the name of good corporate governance, the ‘anomalous position’ of
staff-elected Director on the Board of the ABC would be abolished when the
present incumbent’s term ends in June.
Good Corporate Governance . The words have been gathering gravitas like
moss in the risk-averse, profit-centred business culture where, like all
Australian public institutions, the public broadcaster now finds itself.
Ramona Koval and Sir Maurice Newman go back a bit.
In June 2004, a reportedly furious Sir Maurice resigned from the Board of
the ABC following revelations on ABC TV’s Media Watch that the Board had
been persuaded to allocate some $200,000 from the cash-strapped
broadcaster’s budget to continuously monitor what some members of the Board
and the then Minister, Senator Richard Alston, alleged was outrageous
Left-wing bias in the ABC’s political reporting.
Sir Maurice cited as the reason for his resignation the unwillingness of
the staff-elected Board member, Koval, to abide by Board governance
protocols. Stating that her role as a Director of a major public
corporation required her to act in good faith and in the best interests of
the ABC, Koval assured the Chairman and the Board that she fully intended
to act in accordance with her legal obligations under the Corporations Law
and the ABC Act.
Koval denied that she had breached Board confidentiality.
The ABC’s Board protocols spell out the ‘obligations Directors owe to the
ABC and not to any person or organisation who may have nominated them, nor
to any other individual or group.’
Sir Maurice Newman was appointed by the Government for his clout and
considerable financial expertise. Janet Albrechtsen was appointed because
of her outstanding qualities as a journalist, Minister Coonan assured us.
John Gallagher QC brings his formidable legal skills to the table and much
else. Dr Ron Brunton is a well-known cultural warrior. Recently appointed,
multi-skilled Steven Skala, Vice Chairman, Australia and New Zealand of
Deutsche Bank AG, is also Chairman of Film Australia and other arts and
media-related bodies.
The ABC’s assets are its staff and the programs they produce. Their
expertise is their knowledge of broadcasting — its restraints and
opportunities as broadcasting technology evolves.
Koval and her predecessors (such as Quentin Dempster, Kirsten Garrett and
Tom Molomby), far from being incapable of distinguishing between what are
properly Board issues and those of management or staff, have given the
Board the benefit of considerable experience — far more than the Board has
given the public broadcaster in recent years — or so it seems to an outsider.
We have much to thank the staff-elected Directors for. Without their
expertise at the table — for all its good corporate governance — mediocrity
is what the public broadcaster and the rest of us have most to fear.
Norman Mailer was speaking of America in an interview with Koval in 2001:
The people who have the real power now … are the corporate executives —
they are canny, they are highly tuned mediocrities. There is one thing
about a mediocrity — you can take power from someone who is a powerful
person, because they take chances, real chances, that’s how they got to be
powerful and that’s their pride in themselves, that they are large — but
you cannot take power from an entrenched mediocrity. They work at it 24
hours a day, keeping power.
Koval, like the professional interviewer she is, didn’t interrupt him.
About the author
Hilary McPhee is a former publisher and Chair of the Australia Council. She
is a founding Board member of New Matilda.
http://www.newmatilda.com/home/articledetailmagazine.asp?ArticleID=1470&HomepageID=134
===========================
15. Rights bill a matter for judgement
===========================
The Age
By Anthony Mason
March 29, 2006
THERE has been a division of opinion in Australia on the question of
whether we should adopt a bill of rights. Although I favour the adoption of
such a bill of rights, there are tenable arguments for letting things
remain as they are. These arguments need to be considered against the
background of recent events here and abroad, events that have thrown a
spotlight on deficiencies in Australian protection of individual rights.
Australia now stands alone in the Western world as a jurisdiction without a
general bill of rights, constitutionally entrenched or statute-based.
Guaranteed or declared individual rights are no longer largely a European
phenomenon as they were thought to be by English and Australian common
lawyers when the Australian constitution came into operation at the
beginning of the 20th century.
A bill of rights is now a central feature of the constitutional or public
law arrangements of other major jurisdictions that share the common law
tradition — the United Kingdom itself, the United States, Canada and New
Zealand, to name four of them. They are the countries with which we most
frequently compare ourselves. They share our legal, historical and cultural
heritage and a system of democratic government. Yet they have found it
necessary or desirable to temper the will of the majority by providing for
additional protection for individual rights for the very reason that
neither the common law nor the political process sufficiently protect them.
The emphasis on protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the
end of World War II arose out of the need to protect minorities and
individuals from discrimination and oppression on racial, religious and
other grounds and to protect the rights and freedoms of individuals from
the overriding exercise and abuse of state power.
Although the threat of terrorism has rightly caused countries to make
special and wide-ranging arrangements for security, we have seen how
readily the political process has been prepared to compromise basic
individual rights and to countenance procedures inconsistent with basic
elements of the rule of law. Government proposals for lengthy detention of
suspects without any or speedy access to the courts and an apparent
reluctance to accept meaningful judicial review of the detention of
suspects have been features of the so-called war against terror.
Politicians have a powerful survival instinct. They are anxious to keep
onside with popular sentiment, even more so when popular sentiment has been
fanned by media-fuelled anxiety about threats to security. No politician
wants to be labelled as "soft" on security. So the political process is
willing to compromise on basic rights and on the rule of law to convey the
impression that politicians are seen as tough on terrorism.
In the result, statute law may override common law protection of
fundamental rights and basic elements of the rule of law. This willingness
to compromise on basic rights is not confined to threats to security, where
the justification may seem stronger.
Such a situation may happen infrequently but the fact that it can happen
was enough to persuade the UK, the United States, Canada and New Zealand to
protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, either by constitutionally
entrenched guarantees or statute.
The main arguments for a bill of rights are that it would bring Australia
into line with the rest of the world and it would protect basic individual
rights from interference by political (legislative and executive)
interference. Other advantages are that principled judicial decision-making
would replace political compromise and government and administrative
decision-making, on policy and other issues, would necessarily have close
regard to basic individual rights.
The main arguments against a bill of rights are that the majority will
should prevail, whatever the circumstances, that there is no need to
provide further protection for basic rights, that a bill of rights is
foreign to our traditions, that it gives too much power to the judges and
that it will or may add to costs.
A constitutionally entrenched bill would certainly give more power to
judges than they have. It would enable the judges to override Parliament.
But a statute-based bill, which I favour, would not have that result; it
would leave the judges with their ordinary role of interpreting the laws
made by Parliament, but in the light of the bill of rights.
A bill of rights in this form can be changed by Parliament. Parliament also
has the capacity, by specific and clear language at any time, to override
or qualify statutory rights. But if Parliament takes this course, it must
confront the impact of its proposed law on the rights protected by the bill
and deal with that impact specifically. It can't simply sweep the question
under the carpet or exclude or qualify the rights by vague and general words.
The UK's experience with the Human Rights Act 1998 does not suggest that it
has resulted in any significant increase in litigation. New Zealand's
experience may be different.
The experience in other countries also confirms the lesson of history —
that the rights of individuals are better protected by judges than by
politicians. Politicians and administrators are primarily concerned with
the exercise of government power and policy. Judges are primarily concerned
with the rights of individuals. That is what court cases are all about.
Finally, a bill of rights should be confined to selected basic civil and
political rights, such as freedom of expression, as New Zealand has done.
It should not extend to social and economic rights, which are extremely
controversial and essentially matters suited to political, rather than
judicial judgement.
Sir Anthony Mason is former chief justice of the High Court of Australia.
He wrote this article for New Matilda.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/rights-bill-a-matter-for-judgement/2006/03/28/1143441146122.html
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Project SafeCom has operated a "virtually full-time" operations office
since TAMPA. At Project SafeCom, an Incorporated Association in Western
Australia, we exist from donations, the sale of some items via our website,
and from memberships. You can make a donation by transferring funds to our
account at Bendigo Community Bank Kulin, BSB Number 633-000. Account name:
Project SafeCom Inc., account 115643900, or by sending a cheque or money
order to our address below.
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LINKS:
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HOME OF TERROR? - the hub page for our NEW Australian Anti-terrorism
legislation and our "seditious" section:
http://www.safecom.org.au/terror-home.htm
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around town: http://www.safecom.org.au/royal-commission.htm
What's New - this page lists all the new additions to the website -
hundreds of pages: http://www.safecom.org.au/whatsnew.htm
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The Reading Room: http://www.safecom.org.au/readings.htm
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Our Baxter page: http://www.safecom.org.au/baxter.htm
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