Boatpeople photos give Howards a sinking feeling

MICHAEL PERRY

SYDNEY, FEBRUARY 17: The Australian government drew fresh fire on Sunday for a false claim that asylum seekers threw children overboard in an effort to stay, with the Opposition putting out navy photographs of refugees fleeing a sinking ship.

Prime Minister John Howard’s government campaigned heavily on its anti-boatpeople stance at last year’s election and won, but two government reports last week showed its statement that children were thrown overboard off Christmas Island was wrong.

Howard has said he was never told the incident was false, and has denied lying to the Australian people. Analysts do not expect his head to roll, but believe the furore could eventually lead to a leadership switch.

Newspapers — and 51 per cent of the respondents to an opinion poll — criticised the government.

Was John Howard the emperor with no clothes, whose courtiers were too frightened to tell him the truth? — the Sun-Herald newspaper asked in an editorial. Howard and his ministers have been shown to be inept or downright dishonest.

The Opposition Labor party released a series of navy photographs among which were two issued by the government last year to back up its claim children were thrown overboard.

Opposition leader Simon Crean said the government only made public close-up photographs of people in the water, but did not show the sinking boat.

‘‘Of course people are going to be in the water if the boat is sinking, including children,’’ Crean told Australian television. He said the photographs were also clearly captioned, showing the incident took place a day after the government’s claim.

‘‘But Peter Reith rushed out that day to say here is the evidence...to justify their story that they (children) had been thrown into the water,’’ he added, referring to the Defence minister at the time.

Crean urged Howard to accept responsibility for his government misleading the Australian people.

Howard said on Sunday he would inquire into the photographs, but has said he was never told that the initial claim made by Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock was false.

Government reports last week said the navy told Ruddock’s department the claim was false the day he made it, but Howard’s department was only informed several days later.

The government used the claim to back its stance of diverting a rising tide of West Asian and Afghan boat people ahead of a November 10 poll, saying Australia did not welcome them. It romped back into power on the back of its hard line on asylum seekers and economic management.

An opinion poll published on Sunday found the ‘‘children overboard’’ affair had damaged the government’s reputation.

The McNair survey of 536 people in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper found 51 percent of voters believed the government acted dishonourably during the election campaign. One in 10 said they would have voted differently if they knew the truth.

Opposition politicians have demanded Ruddock’s resignation. Howard’s head is not expected to roll but it could set the stage for a leadership shift in coming years with Treasurer Peter Costello, say analysts. (Reuters)