Coalition’s campaign spokesman says reporting would give information to people smugglers in response to to Bill Shorten’s pledge to offer access

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Barring journalists from going to Nauru and Manus Island detention camps is necessary to prevent “sharing intelligence with people smugglers”, Coalition campaign spokesman Mathias Cormann has suggested.



Cormann said refusing to allow journalists to attend the camps was part of the “operational discipline” that had stopped asylum seeker boats.



On Monday on a special one-person Q&A panel the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, promised greater transparency for the offshore asylum seeker detention centres including allowing journalists onto Manus Island and Nauru. He quickly added that Labor was as committed as the Coalition to “stopping the boats.”

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Speaking at his morning doorstop on Tuesday, Cormann said Bill Shorten had “crab walk[ed] away from our strong border protection policy framework”.



“What a return to a Labor-Green minority government would mean would be weaker borders.”

Cormann said the government’s track record included “clear disciplines in terms of how you manage certain aspects [of border protection]”.

Asked why the government believed it needed to keep journalists out of detention camps, Cormann said it was one of a number of “certain operational disciplines that have been central to our success in keeping our borders secure”.



“We are not in the business to share intelligence with people smugglers.”



Journalists are not allowed regular access to Australia’s offshore detention camps. They face a non-refundable fee of $8,000 to apply for a visa to Nauru, which has proved a major deterrent to scrutiny. According to reports the Australian’s Chris Kenny is the only journalist to have been allowed into Nauru since a BBC visit in 2013.

Cormann repeatedly refused to say what information journalists might report that would undermine the government’s border protection policy, only saying it was part of “operational discipline” that had stopped asylum seeker boats.

When asked why barring journalists was necessary, Cormann said that operational discipline included “not providing a running commentary on all aspects of our border protection policy framework”.

“That is the approach that has been successful, that is the approach that we are committed to.”

Conditions in detention centres have come under scrutiny after two asylum seekers held there self-immolated, leading to the death of one.

After the incidents Catherine Stubberfield, the spokeswoman for the United Nationals high commissioner for refugees regional representation in Canberra, said there was “no doubt that the current policy of offshore processing and prolonged detention is immensely harmful”.

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Speaking on 2GB on Tuesday the treasurer and former immigration minister, Scott Morrison, said Nauru and Papua New Guinea were sovereign governments. “They are the ones that ultimately decide what happens, for [Shorten] to make that unilateral decree shows he doesn’t understand how it works.”

Cormann said: “Our track record is there for all to see. Under Labor more than 50,000 people arrived here illegally on hundreds and hundreds of boats. Clearly the efforts of the Coalition in government, sorting out the mess Labor has made at our borders has clearly been successful.”

Labor has said it will “not allow policy which sees the mass drowning of vulnerable people”, in effect replicating the government’s policy including use of controversial boat towbacks. Labor supports offshore detention but has said it should not be, in practice, indefinite.