14feb02

THE Federal Opposition has accused Prime Minister John Howard of misleading Australians about his knowledge of claims that asylum seekers threw children overboard.

Opposition Leader Simon Crean today said he believed Mr Howard had misled Australians by saying he did not know claims that parents threw their children overboard from an Australia-bound boat were false.

A report released yesterday said Mr Howard's own department, as well as the defence department, knew nearly a month before last year's election that claims asylum seekers threw their children overboard were untrue.

However the public was never told, and the coalition used the false information during the election campaign.

Mr Howard today denied any cover-up, while former defence minister Peter Reith blamed bungling defence bureaucrats for failing to clear up the matter.

Mr Crean, however, accused the prime minister of knowing during the election campaign that children were not thrown overboard during the asylum seeker crisis.

"Yes, I believe that the prime minister did know and we have to establish that," Mr Crean told ABC radio.

The report released yesterday by Mr Howard found that Mr Reith was told four days after the incident in October that children had not been thrown from the boat, while the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet was told a day earlier.

Mr Crean said the government took four hours to perpetrate a lie and four months to hide the truth about the incident.

"He (Mr Howard) will continue to obfuscate, we have a responsibility in the parliament to establish his involvement, his state of knowledge and that of the rest of his government."

He demanded Mr Howard hold a full press conference to front the charges.

"What he's got to face up to is his state of knowledge," Mr Crean said.

"I do not believe and I don't think sensible, thinking Australians will believe that his department knew for four weeks yet told him nothing, nor that he, when he said he would make inquiries, then saw nothing happen."

Mr Howard said all statements made by ministers were based on straight advice from officials and there was no cover-up.

"At no stage did my department or any other official tell me that that original advice was wrong," he told Radio 2UE.

He said during the election campaign he had insisted video footage of the alleged incident be released once doubts were raised about what happened.

"At all times I acted on advice and at no stage did I invent anything and have no stage subsequently have I tried to cover anything up," he said.

Mr Reith today blamed the Department of Defence for the situation, saying there was a failing in the system.

"It was not raised with me as to whether or not children had been thrown overboard - that's the first thing," he told ABC radio.

"The report confirms that no report was, in fact, ever given to me and that is a failing in the system."

Mr Howard denied he felt let down by Mr Reith.

But he deflected questions about the former defence minister's involvement.

"As to what passed between Mr Reith's department and his office, and Mr Reith and his staff, is something that really in fairness to him, he should answer," Mr Howard said.