19feb02

THE opposition has moved to censure PM John Howard for repeated efforts to cover up in the children overboard affair.

Opposition Leader Simon Crean moved the motion after Mr Howard brought an end to question time.

"I move that this house censure the prime minister for his and his government's repeated efforts to cover up the facts surrounding its knowledge of information from the Office of National Assessments," the motion read.

In his second attempt to censure Mr Howard since parliament resumed last week, Mr Crean said the prime minister had broken his promise to answer questions on the overboard affair until the matter was cleared up.

"You haven't answered any of the questions put to you," Mr Crean said,

"You've obfuscated just as you obfuscated at that shambles of a press conference that you called today at 1230 (AEDT) following a crisis meeting that your government was involved in.

"The prime minister ... expects the Australian public to believe that whilst everyone else in his government knew that the kids overboard never happened, he didn't."

Mr Crean said senior ministers including Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock and former defence minister Peter Reith were also involved in the cover-up attempt.

"This is not just one sergeant Schultz, this is a platoon of them," he said.

"All of them, `I know nothing'."

He said the evidence was everywhere that public servants attempted to get information up the government chain that the overboard incident never occurred.

"This platoon of Schultzes ignored the advice. How convenient, prime minister, convenient, but unbelievable," Mr Crean said.