Scott Morrison has refused to apologise to Save the Children staff after a second independent report found a lack of evidence for claims they “coached” asylum seekers to self-harm on Nauru.

The treasurer, who was the immigration minister when the government demanded the removal of 10 Save the Children staff from the island in October 2014, insisted he had “made no conclusion about the allegations” even though he had publicised the “completely unacceptable” details in a press conference.

The human rights commissioner, Tim Wilson, has called on the government to apologise to Save the Children for its handling of the matter, saying it would be the “appropriate, respectful and decent thing to do” after two officially commissioned reviews found the claims were unsubstantiated.



The Moss review found no conclusive evidence that the staff members had facilitated protest activity, encouraged self-harm or fabricated assault allegations, and called on the immigration department to review the decision to remove them.

The subsequent Doogan review, published last Friday, found there was “no evidence nor reliable information” to justify the summary removal of nine of the staff and called on the government to begin compensation talks. A 10th staff member resigned before the removal directive was issued.

Asked directly whether he would apologise in light of the review findings, Morrison said they were matters for the immigration minister, Peter Dutton. Morrison did not offer an opinion as to whether Dutton should apologise.



“I commissioned an independent report, I made no conclusion about the allegations that were made about those issues, whether it was Save the Children or anyone else, and any suggestion that I made a conclusion about that at the time is simply false or maybe wishful memory by some,” Morrison told the ABC’s AM program on Friday.



“The independent report has been undertaken, I think the report speaks for itself and those are matters for the immigration minister because I’m focused on the economy.”

Dutton has not commented on the Doogan report, including whether he would apologise. The minister’s office referred to a statement issued by the department, which accepted the recommendations and acknowledged the Save the Children staff “were providing services to the government of Nauru in difficult and challenging circumstances”.

When Morrison announced the commissioning of the Moss review on 3 October 2014, he told reporters he was “drawing no conclusions about any of these matters” but went on to say service providers were “employed to do a job not to be political activists”.

“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,” he said at the time.



On 7 October 2014, Morrison said the review was needed because he had received reports “which indicate that there may have been a level of coaching and facilitation and coordination amongst people who are working for one of our service providers”.

“Now 10 people in relation to those issues have been asked to leave Nauru and that instruction was given to Save the Children last week,” he told the 2GB broadcaster Ray Hadley.

The coaching claims have their origin in an intelligence report by the Transfield Services sub-contractor Wilson Security, which said 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 and “it seems that the intention was that further investigation would be undertaken before any action was taken”.

Contractor staff on Nauru, the report said, “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”.

The department responded to the report by saying it would “continue to engage with [Save the Children] and legal representatives of its former staff” and would implement the recommendations in line with its legal obligations.