Senate Inquiry into Manus Island
Wednesday 19 March 2014 @ 1.48 p.m. | Immigration
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has dismissed the efforts by the Papua New Guinea Police and Australia’s Immigration Department’s investigation into the Manus Island incident as a “co-ordinated whitewash.” Along with other Labor Senators, the Senator will establish a Senate inquiry into the recent deadly violence that took place.
Hanson-Young vouches that the Senate inquiry will be independent and rigorous, and will interview detention centre staff and asylum seekers involved in the incident. She expresses that ideally, she would like for an investigating committee to travel to Manus Island. She feels the need to get as much information from the camp as possible and this would be difficult to achieve without travelling to the Island. Hanson-Young also explained that short of travelling to the Island, teleconferencing would also be a viable alternative.
Labor’s Immigration spokesman Richard Marles backs the inquiry and highlighted his party’s sentiment that it is vital to get to the bottom of what went wrong. He emphasised that the Immigration Minister has shown a staggering lack of oversight of the centre and is currently running away from responsibility.
The inquiry is expected to begin in April 2014 and report by June.
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