In early September, as federal parliamentarians debated whether to end the repulsive government policy of charging refugees for the costs of their own imprisonment in detention centres, damning revelations emerged that Australian navy personnel prevented badly burnt refugees from climbing onto rescue boats.
On April 16, a boat known as SIEV 36 carrying 47 Afghan asylum seekers exploded near Ashmore Reef in the Timor Sea. The navy had intercepted the vessel and were escorting the refugees to the Australian refugee detention centre on Christmas Island.
A September 7 article in the Australian reported: "In the minutes after the blast, male navy personnel forced survivors trying to cling to the bow and sides of [a] rescue boat back into the water".
Afghan community leader Hassan Ghulam had conducted interviews with some of the surviving asylum seekers.
Hassan told the Australian: "They were pushed by hand and forced away by legs, not kicking in the face or anything but they were being pushed and sailors were shouting, 'Get off, go away'."
Many of the asylum seekers were poor swimmers or were unable to swim. Another navy rescue boat had to move in to save the refugees from drowning.
Five asylum seekers died in the tragedy. The Australian reported that some of the asylum seekers told Hassan they thought the deaths occurred from drowning after they were pushed away by navy personnel. Others said they thought the five asylum seekers had died in the explosion.
The defence department has so far refused to comment on the new allegations but has not denied the claims.
Hassan put the revelations of abuse down to "a culture, a longstanding official culture to express a dislike of refugees" by Navy personnel. This navy "culture" reflects Australia's overall refugee policy of mandatory detention — a policy that wrongly treats refugees as criminals.
Navy footage of the incident is now known to be in the possession of the NT coroner, but has not been released to the public. Instead an inquest has been scheduled for January 2010.
The Australian reported unnamed sources that had seen the video said it contains "distressing" and "inhumane" scenes of the refugees being pushed away from a navy rescue boat.
A spokesperson for defence minister John Faulkner promised the navy footage would be released eventually, but gave no indication of exactly when this would happen.
For the past five months the federal government has covered up the existence of the footage. But what possible "national security" grounds can the government claim for not releasing the evidence?
It seems the public cannot be trusted with displays of inhumanity by the Australian navy. But when the tragedy occurred politicians clamoured to praise the role of navy personnel.
Hassan's interviews with the asylum seekers also threw new light on the cause of the explosion. He said the Afghan refugees told him the explosion was an accident. An Australian navy officer on the asylum seeker boat instructed the crew to fill an engine with petrol.
"The crew filled a tin with petrol and then put it into the pump engine; there was this strong smell of petrol and then the explosion", Hassan told the Australian. A cigarette was the likely cause of the blast.
This contradicts the media hysteria that accompanied the first news of the explosion. Politicians and media outlets repeatedly pointed the finger at the refugees for setting the boat alight themselves.
WA premier Colin Barnett told the media on the day of the blast: "It is understood that the refugees on the boat spread petrol and that ignited causing the explosion." He refused to give any evidence.
A May 9 Australian article by Paul Toohey and Debbie Guest said bluntly: "There was a deliberate attempt to set SIEV 36 alight off Ashmore Reef on April 16." The article went on to suggest the Indonesian crew were to blame, again without evidence.
The refugees were demonised. And all the time the navy and the federal government knew the accusations against them were not true.
Federal parliament finally ended the policy of charging refugees the costs of detention on September 8. Despite this welcome change, Australia's refugee policy remains inhumane.
Until mandatory detention is repealed and refugees are treated with dignity, more cover-ups, more hypocrisy and more cases of human tragedy are certain.