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The Forum > Article Comments > If the cap fits wear it > Comments

If the cap fits wear it : Comments

By Bruce Haigh, published 23/1/2008

It is a politicised Howard-Federal public service that has run, and continues to try to run, government.

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For those who still don't get the point - there was no people smuggling to Australia as the refugees threw themselves at the authorities to seek protection under the refugee convention.

Here is how is works, and always has. Genuine refugees cannot get documents so they are smuggled out of their own countries and sent onwards to other countries that have signed and ratified the refugee convention. For Afghans and Iranians and Iraqis who couldn't get to Europe that was us and only us as none of the Asian countries they transit are signatories.

This is all legal under international law. Now Australia pretended that there was a gang of organised criminals in Indonesia exploiting refugees but they never produced a skerrick of real evidence that they existed. In one case they were aware in October 1999 where a Pakistani man helped Afghans and turned him into a "smuggler" on information given by the refugees.

Abu Quessay was known to the AFP and ASIO in early 2000 but he was still operating when SIEVX sank and even though 353 people were loaded at gunpoint the AFP never investigated and certainly never tried to get Quessay.

On the other hand DIMA and DFAT have been trafficking unwanted people out of Australia and dumping them without documents and declaring that it is legal to do so.

I have done a study of 89 of the boats of people supposedly smuggled to Australia and none of the ferrymen were sent to prison for smuggling but they did have a trial, a lawyer and a sentence, while the refugees didn't.

Just last week I got a letter from one of the criminals in DIMA telling me that the Bakhtiyari family were deported on papers obtained legally from Pakistani authorities. Except we have known since January 2005 that this was not true.

Bruce is right, the new government should sack the criminals in DIMA or imprison the ones who are trafficking and breaking the law.
Posted by Marilyn Shepherd, Wednesday, 23 January 2008 10:39:12 PM
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An interesting article.

The Public Service had indeed become heavily politicised and it's about time they resumed working for the interests of their real masters - the public - rather than as defacto Ministerial aides.

Personal appointees working under mysterious performance-based conditions and the sacking and public discrediting of any dissenters is not a recipe for integrity and openness.

It will be interesting to see what the new Government do with all the things they have inherited - dismantle them or adapt them to their own use.
Posted by wobbles, Thursday, 24 January 2008 8:50:38 AM
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Bruce Haigh “Col Rouge you are a bully.”

Because I dare to disagree with you?

How and in what way have I threatened, tried to intimidate or otherwise “bullied” you?

That you call me “bully” because I exercise my right to disagree with you merely confirms what I gained from reading your drivel in the first place . .

That you are someone who regales himself in the title of “retired diplomat”, yet, from your writing, presents as one with the diplomatic dexterity of an earth worm.

Now, your sampling of examples of evil are merely expressions of your personal hysteria, which I disagree with.

To get back to the point of the civil service, as a supposed “diplomat” your role was to comply with the chain of command which your superiors directed for you, just like anyone else operating within any organisation. That you happen, in your own humble opinion, to consider Howard as the epitome of evil is just crap. I think Howard was the best thing that happened to Australia when he wrested government from the despotism of Keating and his socialist cronies. That is my opinion, that you think I am a bully for holding such opinion is your problem. Consider yuourself lucky that I, believe in and support you sovereign right your write drivel and behave like a pretentions pratt.

So I suggest, back to the olive trees with you Bruce (they are less likely to respond unfavourably to your vexatious venom).
Calling people “bully” is no way to win friends and influence people, as you should have been taught in year one at “diplomat school"
Posted by Col Rouge, Thursday, 24 January 2008 9:45:53 AM
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Plantagenet – you worry me. The last thing Australia needs is an aspirational J.Edgar Hoover copycat running a combined AFP-ASIO.
The AFP role in Immigration matters, including the so-called “disruption” operations on foreign soil, has never been openly scrutinised. At home, the AFP failed to act to stop physical abuse of detainees in Detention Centres. The infamous case of a 13-year old boy being taken from the care of a doctor to be bashed by three guards at Woomera was swept under the carpet when the perpetrators failed to respond to summonses and were simply allowed by the AFP to melt back into the system. The first transcript in the bungled Haneef case shows all too clearly the inadequacy of sections of the AFP. Even at the simple level of time references in potentially vital evidence, the record shows a senior AFP agent unversed in interview technique and the universally accepted operational structure of the 24 hour clock. Relatives of those members of the Bali Nine facing the death penalty will certainly spend the rest of their lives wondering why your dynamic Mr Keelty decided to tip off a foreign service rather than wait and use surveillance to snare the wider network on their return to Australia. APEC showed all too clearly that the current AFP leadership prefers suppression by paramilitary force, to the open display of democratic ideas
Posted by John Highfield, Thursday, 24 January 2008 9:58:37 AM
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Leigh,

The German people elected Hitler in 1933 in an election that most historians agree was democratically conducted. And they went on carrying out their national patriotic duty under his policies for the next 12 years (interesting coincidence with our Johnny, there). If you see the brilliant German film "The Lives of Others" and read Anna Funder's interesting critique of it in "Best Australian Essays of 2007" (Black Inc, 2007) you might learn some things you dont know about what can happen to societies under democratically elected but evil leaders.

It is a shame you and Col Rouge - neither of whom wishes to name himself/herself even now - resorted to personal abuse of Bruce Haigh who is an intelligent and honourable man, and the least naive person I know. I thought OLO had left that style of debate behind.

Tony Kevin
Posted by tonykevin 1, Thursday, 24 January 2008 5:52:37 PM
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John Highfield

I stand before you as a bod who was as critical of the AFP over the Haneef (pre-election Muslim scare) as any.

Yet Haneef made $2 million for a 20 minute interview and of course deserves many more millions $$$ for his two weeks confinement. I wish his stockbrockers well and know that his lawyers expect much, much, more fees.

I'm talking about organisational effectiveness which is often un-nice and doesn’t reach the media. The AFP have cut a very wide swathe over the last 7 or so years because they have most of the tools available in contrast to the rest of Australia's fragmented and frequently bitchy intelligence network.

The AFP have been performing some of the roles that ASIO and ASIS traditionally/possibly tried at. All this was apparent in making the Indonesians more effective following the bombings (Bali I and Bali II) at locating, catching and trying those talkative Jihadis.

The problems you point out may well be valid but I'm talking about organisational change which might be in train under our all Labor Government Australia.

Pete
http://spyingbadthings.blogspot.com/2007/11/asio-in-poo-over-ul-haque-case.html
Posted by plantagenet, Thursday, 24 January 2008 6:34:01 PM
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