Human rights commissioner calls for ‘someone ... to do the decent and appropriate thing’ after independent report finds nine staff were unfairly fired

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The human rights commissioner, Tim Wilson, has called on the federal government to apologise to Save the Children for its handling of accusations about the charity’s workers “coaching” asylum seekers to self-harm on Nauru.

Save the Children workers unfairly fired on Nauru for political reasons – report Read more

A review by the former chief executive of the high court, Christopher Doogan, found there was “no evidence nor reliable information” to justify the summary removal of nine Save the Children staff from the island in October 2014.

A tenth staff member resigned before the removal directive was issued by the government. The review report, released in a heavily redacted form on Friday, also called on the government to begin compensation talks with the staff.

The then immigration minister, Scott Morrison, said at the time he had received information indicating “that there may have been a level of coaching and facilitation and coordination amongst people who are working for one of our service providers”.

Wilson, whose appointment to the Human Rights Commission attracted criticism because of his Liberal party links, said the government should now say sorry.



“Someone within government needs to do the decent and appropriate thing and apologise,” he told Sky News on Wednesday.

“I think it’s the appropriate, respectful and decent thing to do.”

Wilson said the government should “recognise that the facts they were provided with at the time perhaps were wrong” and apologise to “close this chapter so the debates and issues can go on”.

He also raised broader concerns about the secrecy surrounding the running of immigration detention centres and called for greater oversight.



“Independent and credible oversight of these detention centres is in everybody’s interests,” Wilson said.

Comment is being sought from the immigration minister, Peter Dutton.

Morrison declined to apologise in March 2015 when an earlier report he commissioned, the Moss review, found a lack of evidence that contract service providers on Nauru had facilitated protest activity, encouraged self-harm or fabricated assault allegations.

Scott Morrison: no apology over dismissed Nauru Save the Children staff Read more

When asked directly if he would apologise to Save the Children, Morrison said: “Well, I made no allegations, I referred allegations for a proper inquiry.”

In a press conference in October 2014 announcing the Moss review, Morrison said: “Making false claims and worse – allegedly coaching self-harm and using children in protests – is also completely unacceptable, whatever their political views or whatever their agendas.”

Morrison’s announcement came hours after the Daily Telegraph reported the coaching allegations under the headline “Truth overboard”.

The reviews found Transfield Services prepared an intelligence report on 30 September 2014 saying it was “probable that there is a degree of internal and external coaching, and encouragement, to achieve evacuation to Australia through self-harm actions”.

But the Doogan report said the original email naming the 10 Save the Children staff members stated there was no firm evidence of involvement at that stage.



Doogan suggested that the contractor staff on Nauru “were being pushed to provide names and information to support what was perceived in Canberra to be [Save the Children] staff providing inappropriate support or assistance to transferees in various ways”.

“As will become clear from the following outline, there was in fact no evidence nor reliable information on which to specifically name nine of the 10 [Save the Children] staff,” the report said.