Howard lied over 'children overboard' affair, says senior aide

By GREG ANSLEY

CANBERRA - In a sensational development before the impending federal election Prime Minister John Howard has been accused of lying to the nation over the "children overboard" affair - one of the keys to his last election victory.

In the final weeks of the 2001 campaign the Government falsely claimed that asylum-seekers had thrown their infants into the Indian Ocean to thwart efforts to turn their boat back towards Indonesia.

Their apparent willingness to sacrifice children, coming in the highly charged wake of the Tampa refugee crisis and the September 11 terror attacks, outraged Australia and helped to cement last-minute support around Howard.

Although the Government was later forced to admit that the claims were not true, it had by then won another term in office and there was no evidence to prove Howard had been told before the vote that the incident had never happened.

The Prime Minister has consistently said he did not know before the election that the reports were false.

But a senior adviser to Peter Reith, the Defence Minister at the time, has disclosed that three days before the 2001 election he told Howard in three telephone calls that the claims were untrue, confirming earlier advice given to Reith by Acting Defence Chief Air Marshall Angus Houston.

Despite the advice given by Michael Scrafton, Howard repeated the claim in his final campaign address to the National Press Club and as late as the day before the November 10 vote he continued to defend its veracity.

In a statement yesterday Howard said Scrafton had told him only that the Navy video of the alleged incident was "inconclusive", and that Scrafton had earlier denied being advised that no children had in fact been thrown into the water.

"I stand by the previous statements I have made on this matter," the Prime Minister said.

With the nation evenly split on Australian involvement in Iraq and growing concern at the closeness of ties to the Administration of United States President George W. Bush, Scrafton's revelations have come at a bad time for the Government.

Howard has already had to buckle to Labor demands for changes to the free-trade agreement with the US to prevent pharmaceutical giants from undermining Australia's subsidised drug scheme.

He had also been attacked by 43 of Australia's most distinguished former military, diplomatic and bureaucratic leaders for his foreign policy, including, among other issues, the children overboard affair.

Although the Government has been slowly clawing back the lead gained by Labor after Mark Latham became Opposition leader in February, opinion polls continue to predict a narrow Labor victory.

The most recent, a Morgan poll released on Friday, showed a 53.5 per cent to 46.5 per cent lead to Labor in the two-party preferred vote that determines the final outcome under Australia's preferential voting.

Morgan chief Ray Morgan said many voters supported Labor because of their concern over Iraq and Howard's credibility.

The Scrafton claims, made in a letter to the Australian, have made a further deep cut into that credibility by reporting a conversation with Howard that Scrafton had been prevented from recounting to a Senate inquiry into the affair.

In his letter Scrafton said he had made the position clear to Howard in three telephone calls on November 7.

"In the course of those calls I recounted to him that: (a) the [videotape of the alleged incident] was at best inconclusive as to whether there were any children in the water but certainly didn't support the proposition that the event had occurred; (b) that the photographs that had been released in early October were definitely of the sinking of the refugee boat on October 8 and not of any children being thrown in the water; and (c) that no one in Defence that I dealt with still believed any children were thrown overboard," the letter said.

Labor yesterday called for a new Senate probe into the claims and said Howard was unfit to lead the nation.

"The Prime Minister went to the Australian people on the basis of a lie, misleading them the day before the last federal election and misleading them ever since," Latham said.

"It really is time for the Prime Minister at long last, just once, to take responsibility for the fact that he hasn't told the truth and he owes the Australian people a huge apology, in the circumstances of this deceit."