Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This afternoon I would like to address my remarks to a number of issues arising from questions which were raised in the parliament yesterday and today of the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs regarding an employee of his department, Mr Gregory Andrews, who you will recall, Mr Speaker, appeared on the ABC’s Lateline program on 21 June this year. You will understand that this Lateline program made a number of very serious allegations about paedophilia and child abuse and other issues related to the community of Mutitjulu. There were a number of people who were interviewed who spoke with full identification who did not substantiate the allegations made by Mr Andrews, and what they had to say was very plausible.

However, Mr Andrews’s evidence was heavily relied upon by the Lateline program. You will recall that he described himself anonymously as a former youth worker. He was not. It has turned out, of course, that he is a senior officer of the minister’s department. He made inflammatory, sensational and totally unsubstantiated hearsay allegations about individuals within the community. He was the subject of questions in parliament yesterday and again today. But Mr Andrews is an assistant secretary in the Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination and, in that role, provides advice to the minister. Lateline was aware of this when it interviewed Mr Andrews on 2 June and went ahead with the deception that he was an anonymous former youth worker. The ABC did not disclose Mr Andrews’s absolute conflict of interest. That surely must be a breach of the ABC’s editorial guidelines.

We have been told by the minister that this deception was because Mr Andrews believed that he had been threatened. You will recall, Mr Speaker, that Minister Brough said yesterday in parliament:

I was informed that Mr Andrews had decided that he would only appear anonymously as he had already experienced a number of threats ...

These apparent threats did not prevent Mr Andrews travelling to Mutitjulu on 6 June, a few days after he had undertaken the interview recorded by the ABC on 2 June. He travelled to that community freely, safely and without any police protection. It is clear that Mr Andrews’s boss, the head of the Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination, Mr Wayne Gibbons, and the minister were aware of his interview and the deception. Indeed, as I understand it, he was coached, counselled and advised by the minister’s office, Mr Gibbons and other senior officers of the OIPC prior to the interview. Indeed, I am also advised that Mr Andrews’s statement was legalled by his department.

So now it is clear to me and many others that Mr Andrews’s unfortunate appearance on Lateline was part of a government-sponsored strategy. While he was in Central Australia, Mr Andrews was improperly seeking to secure access to criminal records of individuals and we know that Mr Gibbons was aware of this intention. I have here an email from Mr Greg Andrews to Mr Wayne Gibbons, dated Monday, 5 June 2006, timed at 2.50 pm and importance ‘High’. He says:

I am currently on my way to Mutitjulu—plane has been diverted and delayed due to fog. I have been using the opportunity of the delay to talk to various stakeholders by phone.

He says a number of other things and then he concludes by saying:

A source in Central Australia has agreed to provide me with a physical copy of … official criminal record. If I am able to obtain this document, I will provide it to you immediately on my return.

This raises very serious questions about the probity and propriety of Mr Andrews’s visit, the knowledge of the minister and the minister’s department about his activities and what in fact he was doing in the community. I have previously raised these issues, and I have raised these concerns with the ABC. I call on the ABC to apologise to the Mutitjulu community for the deception and the allegations which have been made by Mr Andrews, which have been unsubstantiated, uncorroborated and are all hearsay. This sort of public administration should not be tolerated in this country. Minister Brough knows much more than he has told us so far. There is a lot more to go, and we will find out.