[Wazza]

While confirming that the Federal Government lied to the Australian people, the Senate's Children Overboard Report [Tampa Incident] tells us nothing new about that sorry affair - but it does reveal another story which is new, important and disturbing. It concerns how the Government sought to hide the truth and evade responsibility for its many deceptions of last year, an election year.

Cover-ups tell us more about a government than stuff-ups. Mistakes happen, often committed by people lacking complete knowledge and being pursued along, by unfolding events. People stuff-up, sometimes criminally, it's human nature, but generally such mistakes are limited to a to a small group operating in a specific set of circumstances.

Cover-ups are different.

Usually they involve well-informed ministers [politicians], looking back on events in the clear light of day and deciding, often with the connivance of colleagues, to evade public scrutiny. This is what happened in this case and it is frightening.

Most people have supported this currrent Government for much of its existence. In general they support its border protection policies - but I must agree that its behaviour in this matter goes beyond the specific issue involved and has dangerously corrupted the process of government in this country.

Many supporters of the Prime Minister are indifferent to this affair because they don't care whether children were thrown overboard or not. However, they should realise the precedents it has set for non-accountability and cover-up, could one day be used to defend very different policies and actions.

The committee was charged by the Senate to investigate the Government's control and use of information during the affair.

So how did the Government respond?

Even before the first word was uttered to the committee, the Defence Minister described the inquiry as an opposition stunt. The previous Defence Minister refused to give evidence. The current Defence Minister shut down the defence liaison group that had been assisting the committee, meaning all requests for information and witnesses had to pass through his office. That office then obstructed the committee by withholding key documents for an inordinate length of time. The Defence Minister also refused to allow some witnesses to appear. According to the Committee Chairman, the Defence Minister's Chief of Staff behaved toward the committee in a way that could only be described as discourteous and unprofessional.

Cabinet proceeded to refuse to allow the committee access to ministerial and prime ministerial staff, including public servants that had worked in ministerial offices at the time of the incident.

This decision, presumably done to protect the guilty, was a landmark for Australian democracy . It sent a clear signal to ministerial staff that they are expected to hide unpleasant news from their bosses and they will not be punished if the do. What you have to wonder is what will happen to them if they don't? The Defence Minister went even further than the Cabinet decision and refused to allow some members of the Australian Defence Force to give evidence.

In the early days of the inquiry, the Government even prevented agencies from making submissions. This was a cover-up on a massive scale. The former Defence Minister's guilt was so obvious, the committee found "he was not honest in his public dealings regarding the children overboard affair " and had "deceived the Australian people."

But for his colleagues and their staff, we just do not know. The committee chairman claims that the Howard Government had used its power '"to prevent full parliamentary scrutiny of itself. This is not open government. What should be done about it is now an important matter for national debate."

In the Howard Government, ministerial advisers have fallen into a black hole, a black hole created by the government to protect those who would shirk their responsibility for accountability to the electorate. They have gained in Kipling's words: "Power without responsibility - the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages."

The Defence Minister dismissed the report saying, "There were mistakes in Defence. Basically, the Government was wrongly advised and as a result the Government passed on the incorrect information to the public".

No-one else in Australia accepts that summary of the event - the Government went on to win the election and the rest is history.

Government for the people, by the people. Yeah right. I've said it before here that there is no room for the people in politics. It's power and the next four year term at all costs. But in Australia you can get into politics without a lotta finacial backing. Trouble is the debt you owe to your backers does not include the people who voted you in. So the corruption comes when the backers call in their markers. AND they are usually large markers.

The big end of town for one party and the union movement for the other. Oh yes and don't forget the pixies in the forest. They're called The GREEN's. Might as well be vegetables.