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May 20, 2003
I watched the 4 Corners programme on the Woomera Detention Centre on the ABC last night. It was classic investigative journalism by Debbie Whitmont which uncovered what was previously hidden behind the razor at Woomera. That a lot of what happened was publicly hidden can be seen the response here
What suprised me from the expose was not the background government policy to treat the asylum seekers from Iraq and Afghanistan harshly. We already knew that. It was the way Australian Correctional Management (ACM), a subsidiary of the US Wackenhut Corporation, shortchanged the Federal Government on the contractural services provided in order to make a profit. Profit was the bottomline here. 4 Corners argued that ACM left the Woomera Detention Centre dangerously understaffed to maximise profits, and that the senior management of ACM covered up the shortchanging of services with various kinds of falsehoods.
What also suprised me was that the Department of Immigration knew that it was being shortchanged in terms of staffing numbers and the contractural services provided, but it went along with it. As did the Minister presumably.
What the program suggests is that we have a new system of governance that didn't really care about the wellbeing of the asylum seekers. It was a penal system designed to make life miserable and to degrade and dehumanize the asylum seekers inside the razor wire prison in the desert.
This mode of governance backfired because the politics could not be managed. Woomera was in the headlines and became synonymous with riots, protests and breakouts by desperate detainees plus claims that mental illness, self-harm and attempted suicide were rife.
The impression given by 4 Corners was that the rough-house treatment of asylum seekers by ACM was standard operating procedure. No doubt Philip Ruddock, the Immigration Minister, will make light of the staff claims: ----no doubt something along the lines that there is no need for any inquiry because all that happened was just a few management hiccups in difficult circumstances. That message will be wrapped up in a lot of legalese.
Woomera may be closed. Baxter is now open and running
Addition. On the 7.30 Report Minister Ruddock whitewashes ACM:
KERRY O'BRIEN: "But we're talking about conditions that were still applying up to last year.Eighty per cent of all Woomera's inmates were ultimately granted visas.In other words, most on the face of it were genuine refugees who had already suffered God knows what in humanity, who had put their lives at risk in leaky boats to get here.
Did they deserve to be treated like that like that?To be driven to that level of desperation? If the evidence of these carers is accurate?"
PHILIP RUDDOCK: "Well, the point I would make is that we were obliged by law to detain people who arrived without lawful authority, to deal with a number of issues."
KERRY O'BRIEN: "Humanely?"
PHILIP RUDDOCK: "Humanely, yes. And we endeavour to deal with them as humanely as possible. The inhumanity that you speak of is as a result of behaviour of the detainees themselves."
Read that last line again. The inhumanity at Woomera had nothing to do with actions of ACM. Nothing
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The only good out of the whole sorry saga is that people like Ruddock and Howard will be held to account by history if as it now seems there are people willing to dob them in. Small comfort for their victims but hopefully damaging in the long-run to far right politics in this country. What is Henry Bolte remembered for? The last hanging in Victoria while ignoring a groundswell of opinion for clemency. What will Ruddock be remembered for? Collecting the stamps off letters and ignoring the begging pleas for justice within.