Minister accuses news organisations of ‘trivialising’ grave issues ‘by trying to promote the 2,100 reports as somehow all being serious when they’re not’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Australia’s immigration minister has launched a wide-ranging attack on the Guardian and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, saying he wasn’t going to “be defamed” by their reporting of allegations of child abuse and sexual assault at the Nauru detention centre.

Revealed: Peter Dutton's extensive briefings about risks and harm to children on Nauru Read more

Speaking on the ABC’s AM radio program on Thursday, Peter Dutton criticised reporting about Australian’s detention centre on the Pacific island. He attacked news organisations, refugee advocates and Save the Children Australia, accusing the child rights agency of leaking the more 2,000 incident reports published last week by the Guardian as the Nauru files.

Save the Children issued a robust denial of Dutton’s allegations, saying “claims that we leaked the documents are false”.

The files – the largest cache of leaked documents released from inside Australia’s immigration regime – revealed the devastating trauma and abuse inflicted on children held in Nauru.

The government has faced heavy domestic and international criticism about the files and Labor has launched a push for a Senate inquiry.



Dutton initially played down the files’ significance but the Guardian revealed on Thursday he had received extensive briefings from Save the Children about the ongoing risks of harm to children.

In response to questions on AM about the briefings, Dutton said: “We received correspondence from Save the Children – we do on a regular basis. They’ve leaked the documents, the 2,100 documents that the Guardian’s reporting that the ABC now reports on, and we will look at each of those cases.”

Save the Children's letters to Dutton and Turnbull about harm to children in Nauru – full text Read more

Dutton, a former police officer, said: “I’ve spent much of my professional career investigating sexual assaults and assaults against people and arresting people for that. I take these issues very seriously.

“The trouble, frankly, with the approach of the Guardian and the ABC has been to trivialise the very serious issues by trying to promote the 2,100 reports as somehow all of those being serious when they’re not.

“Many of those reports relate to corporal punishment by children by their own parents. They report about some minor assaults by detainees on detainees, refugees on refugees.

“We are going through all of that information. It doesn’t help that the files leaked by Save the Children, they’ve only put out a redacted version. We’ve asked them for all of the details.”

He later said: “I’m not going to be defamed by the Guardian and by the ABC because we are doing everything within our power to provide support to people.”

'People have self-immolated to get to Australia' – immigration minister's response to Nauru files Read more

Mat Tinkler, director of policy and public affairs at Save the Children, said: “We have respected the terms of our contract with the Australian government, the provisions of the Australian Border Force Act, and the confidentiality of our client that prevents us from speaking publicly about the specific incidents that our staff witnessed in the Nauru detention centre. Minister Dutton’s claims on AM this morning that we leaked the documents are false.”

“Further claims that the government only has access to the redacted versions published on the Guardian website are clearly wrong – the government is in possession of the original copies of all of the incident reports leaked last week.

“The Australian government receives copies of all incident reports authored by service providers on Nauru as part of their contractual obligations. In addition, representatives of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection were actively involved in coordinating, managing and responding to all critical incidents that occurred in the Nauru regional processing centre.”

He continued: “Save the Children also maintained a sophisticated case management tool that included copies of all Save the Children incident reports and the Australian government was provided with a full copy of this data at the conclusion of our contract in October 2015.”

The Australian Council for International Development has defended Save the Children, with its chief executive, Marc Purcell, labelling Dutton’s comments an attempt to “shoot the messenger”.

At a press conference in Canberra on Thursday Purcell said Dutton’s “false allegations against a very reputable child protection agency on cases of harm to children on Nauru ... [are] backed up with no evidence”.

He said this was the second time the Coalition government had attack Save the Children, after its Moss review cleared the agency after similar allegations of leaking by Dutton’s predecessor, Scott Morrison.

“There are some very damaged children and young people on Nauru … first they deny allegations, then try to confuse and deflect responsibility, blame the victims and then attack those that seek to expose the truth and protect victims.”

At the Senate inquiry into Nauru in 2015, the dentention centre contractor Wilson Security said that incident reports filed would eventually be provided to Australia’s immigration department.

The Guardian has highlighted the allegations of family violence in the Nauru files and broken down the incident reports by seriousness and category.

On Wednesday a group of legal academics and migration experts, including Frank Brennan, argued that the policy of turnbacks makes punitive detention unnecessary to deter dangerous boat journeys. More than 100 former detention staff have also spoken out about the detention system.

The day after the PNG and Australian governments jointly confirmed the Manus Island detention centre would close, Dutton reaffirmed the government’s position that none of the 854 men held there would ever be resettled in Australia.

But he conceded that “quite a low number ... less than 20” men had been resettled in PNG.

Several of the men who had been moved into the PNG community in Lae had made their own way back to the Manus detention centre. In some cases they tried to break back into detention, after being robbed, assaulted, and in at least one case, left homeless in PNG.

For three years, the government has sought “third countries” which might accept refugees from Australia’s offshore detention centres. Only one man, moved from Nauru, has been resettled in Cambodia, but Dutton told ABC’s AM program there were not third-country options available to the men on Manus.

“There is no third-country option available for people out of Manus at this point in time. That’s the reality that we deal with.



“We have a look at these people to help them return back to their country of origin or they settle in PNG. They are the two options available to these people.”

He said those found not to be refugees would be forcibly returned to their countries of origin. Countries such as Iran, however, refuse to accept forced returns.

According to the minister’s department, 98% of the men on Manus who have had their refugees claims assessed have been found to be refugees with a “well-founded fear of persecution” in their homelands, and are legally owed protection.