Government News Index
TitlDefence man faces probee 88
By MEGAN SAUNDERS
The Australian
25mar02
DEFENCE Department secretary Allan Hawke today faces public cross-examination on the children overboard debacle for the first time when the Senate inquiry into the affair begins in Canberra.
Labor strategists are keen to target Dr Hawke, who apparently knew of doubts over John Howard and other ministers' claims that asylum-seekers had thrown their children overboard – but has so far avoided interrogation.
"Hawke was told about this very early in the piece and he has not been scrutinised at all," said one Labor insider yesterday.
Dr Hawke managed to miss the recent Senate estimates grilling of senior bureaucrats and military personnel because he was in South Korea.
His absence caused resentment in government and military circles, who believed he should have faced the same level of scrutiny.
Today, Dr Hawke appears as the first witness before the Senate inquiry into the affair, where he is expected to be questioned by Labor's John Faulkner.
Liberal senator Alan Ferguson, who last week replaced disgraced senator Bill Heffernan on the Senate inquiry, yesterday accused Labor of a witch-hunt.
"They are trying to squeeze the last drop out of a lemon," he said. "This is just a last- ditch attempt to implicate the Prime Minister."
The committee's eight senators – three Labor, three Liberal, a Democrat and an Independent – will also meet today to discuss calling at the next sitting former defence minister Peter Reith and key advisers like Mike Scrafton.
A lineup of six top military brass will follow Dr Hawke's evidence, including the Head of Strategic Command Air Vice-Marshal Alan Titheridge, who first passed on the now discredited claims to the people-smuggling taskforce headed by senior bureaucrat Jane Halton on November 7, 2001.
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