Cornall report does no one — and not Morrison — any credit
The report into the death of Reza Barati is only a partial one, but it reflects poorly on Scott Morrison's efforts to spin the tragedy.
May 27, 2014
The report into the death of Reza Barati is only a partial one, but it reflects poorly on Scott Morrison's efforts to spin the tragedy.
"... the report demonstrates how wildly and shamefully wrong Morrison was in his initial claims about the events on Manus."Based on the report, it's only a matter of luck that the death toll wasn't considerably higher: the previous night, an asylum seeker who had escaped had his throat slit after he was returned to custody, while Cornall observed several bullet holes at chest height in the centre -- despite G4S urging the PNG police not to use firearms. Most obviously, the report demonstrates how wildly and shamefully wrong Morrison was in his initial claims about the events on Manus. He initially claimed about Berati that "people decided to protest in a very violent way and to take themselves outside the centre and place themselves at great risk", in effect blaming Berati for his fate, a claim it took several days for him to admit was false. He claimed "there were no PNG police inside the centre last night" the day after. He said about detainees "I can guarantee their safety when they remain in the centre and act cooperatively with those who are trying to provide them with support and accommodation" less than 24 hours after peaceful detainees had been hunted down in their rooms and attacked and robbed. And in parliament a week later, Morrison sought to extend the blame to Labor, saying the Cornall report would "go into the performance of the service contractors that those opposite contracted. It will go into the security arrangements that were put in place and left to the opposition when we formed government ... I know those opposite will be concerned about the specifications and arrangements they put in place in Manus Island." Cornall entirely discredits Morrison's argument that Labor's arrangements played a role in what happened in February. He discusses how the role of Manus Island changed after the July 2013 resettlement deal between then-prime minister Rudd and PNG's Peter O'Neill, that the centre was rapidly expanded, but that the caretaker period for last year's election halted further work, such as funding allocation for more security, until the new government was sworn in. Indeed, the person responsible for the overall security assessment of Manus Island is the sainted general Angus Campbell, who according to Cornall, conducted a "Force Security Review" in October 2012. "The government accepted the Task Force's assessment and allocated funding to meet its recommendations. The Task Force provides monthly risk remediation updates covering the security risks." The problem is, as the potential for violence increased and security provider G4S became increasingly concerned after Australia Day this year, its concerns weren't fully addressed. G4S "accurately predicted severe protests and violence around 16, 17 and 18 February", Cornall found, and had "raised its concern about the high risks involved in accommodating up to 1400 single adult males in a low-security, temporary centre with the department on a number of occasions in the months preceding the incidents ..." The department, Cornall said, responded to G4S's requests for more guards, but rejected its recommendation that there be significantly better communication about the fate of asylum seekers in PNG, the issue that proved to be the flashpoint for the violence. However, the department initially refused to meet with detainees on the basis that this would be "negotiating" with them. A meeting to communicate resettlement information to detainees was only called by the department on 5 February, and it was disastrously handled. Morrison hasn't finished yet with not telling the truth about what happened. In yesterday's media conference, he made a point of saying media reports in Australia had helped stir up detainees at the centre, as though Australian journalists had some culpability in what happened. The only support Cornall lends to this claim is G4S's January security report, that says
"The media attention given to the release of the UNHCR and Amnesty International reports (both prior to and post the reports' official release) gave further weight to a potential change [in Australian policy, or the prospects of amnesty]."In the end, however, Cornall's report is partial and far from comprehensive. We don't know the exact circumstances in which PNG police entered Mike compound, whether they tried to prevent locals, whether employed in the centre or not, from attacking detainees, or why they were shooting at a level evidently designed to hit people. We don't know what assessment the department made about security concerns versus "negotiating" with detainees. Most of all, the report ignores the broader question of whether it's viable to run a facility the entire purpose of which is to house people indefinitely while their fate remains deliberately unresolved.
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Morrison hasn’t finished yet with not telling the truth about what happened. In yesterday’s media conference, he made a point of saying media reports in Australia had helped stir up detainees at the centre, as though Australian journalists had some culpability in what happened. In short, its God’s will isn’t it Mr Morrison? We know you pray for answers often at your happy church. God said: blame everyone else, you’re not to blame, your hands are clean.
On Insiders on Sunday, they were saying Morrison is the only “good” news the LNP have at present…says it all really.
Isn’t that Robert “Clayton” – with his “Clayton’s Review”?
For the sake of consistency, this should be added to Labor’s re-election Royal Commission to-do list with some very limited and unflattering terms of reference.
LeoK – spot on. I thought it an odd thing to say about such an unexploded bomb that he is the criteria for bad, bdder, dead-in-the-water.
Now this foul stinkin’ mess shows that he is at least cut from the same cloth/sackcloth & ashes as Kevin “Andrews” Android when in the same job, traducing Dr Haneef up hill & down dale.
What is it someone said – “people are bad enough but for them to be truely evil needs religious conviction”. Pity that such delusion isn’t a criminal, or at least civil (esp re rates & taxes), offence.
Maybe then we’d be rid of these troublesome, failed priests.
If the current government is holding the previous government to account for the deaths associated with the pink batts program (despite workplace health and safety being covered under state legislation and being the primary responsibility of the employer and the employee in any case) then surely by the same standard the government should hold the Minister to account for Berati’s death.
Ministerial responsibility is dead, dead, dead. Extinct. An ex-parrot.
Oh I think things will run much better in Cambodia though! That is Scott’s ultimate solution to all these bothersome problems up in PNG. I mean thank God Labour didn’t get their Malaysian solution up thanks to the High Court. Oh so will there be a High Court challenge to the Cambodian policy?
Gee there is another option, hire a big boat, go up to Indonesia and bring those who claim to be asylum seekers here and process them in OZ. Radical idea I know but all this outsourcing to poor countries is ridiculous.
I think this report contradicts nothing contained in the 4 Corners story a month or so ago. Detainees were not getting on well with the locals. On the night in question, the detainees were outside the perimeter fence.
Most of the violence was perpetrated by local PNG people after G4S lost control and this then came inside the centre. Morrison was badly briefed in his desire to be on the front foot over communicating the events and was active in correcting the reports as more information was provided to him.
The real story Crikey is interested in is in the last paragraph. A question about whether Manus, and offshore processing should occur, and at last we return to the tired discredited Greens position. Surprise surprise. Yawn.
The last line doesn’t ring true. According to the media reports at the time, the unrest began when the asylum seekers were told they would not make it to Australia.
The LNP will decide who doesn’t come to Australia and the manner in which they are prevented from coming.
The LNP will decide who dies while in mandatory detention and the manner in which they die.
Scott Morrison will decide what the truth is and the manner in which he fabricates it.