SIEV X - a helpless human cargo

Most mainstream media and academics, even those on the Left, have moved on from this uncomfortable story. SIEV X is rarely referenced in books on Australian politics, current affairs or human rights: unlike “Tampa” and “children overboard” which have become iconic phrases frequently used to shorthand that period of Australian history in 2001, when our political leaders and border protection authorities seemed maddened by hate and fear of innocent people whose crime was simply to seek refuge and reunite their sundered families in Australia.

Some Australian defence chiefs, as is clear from their CMI testimony, had come to see such illegally entering boat people as serious national security threats, even as enemies. They instructed ships’ commanders to ignore asylum-seekers’ pleas to be treated as refugees. Asylum-seekers were regularly brutalised, intimidated, deceived, herded into holds using Taser weapons, sent to detention in Nauru or towed back to the edge of Indonesian waters where people in disabled unseaworthy boats were left to live or die. SIEV X is the worst event in a shameful period of Australian official inhumanity to fellow human beings.

Powerful people, from John Howard down, want SIEV X forgotten. They have failed. When it became clear the Senate investigation was going nowhere, I wrote my prizewinning investigative book, A Certain Maritime Incident - the Sinking of SIEV X, because I wanted SIEV X to be remembered. It sold well. It is still available on order from the publishers - there was a recent small second printing to meet continuing demand.

Australia’s political establishment and senior commentariat, on both Left and Right, with honourable exceptions like John Faulkner, Carmen Lawrence, Andrew Bartlett and the Greens, mostly turned away from SIEV X after 2002. The issue does not sit easily in the present Coalition-Labour mainstream political discourse which agrees that “robust” (read “ruthless”) border protection is necessary. There are too many powerful interests - the Howard national security departments and agencies, and the ADF and AFP lobbies - that work to discourage any public mention of SIEV X as an unresolved issue of government accountability.

Fortunately the people of Australia are not afraid to honour SIEV X as a major human tragedy in Australia’s history of migration. People who have come into actual contact with any of the thousands of former Middle Eastern boat people now living quietly in Australia know their grief over wives, children and friends lost on SIEV X; people like the good folk of Rural Australians for Refugees and the many church and secular-based volunteer organisations engaged in the day-to-day work of helping refugees.

I pay tribute to individuals like Anne Simpson of Bellingen RAR who made the wonderful first short film on SIEV X - “Untold Tragedy”, Sue Hoffman and Kaye Bernard in Western Australia and Gordon Thompson on Christmas Island, Marg Hutton and her indispensable reference website, Mary Dagmar Davies and her memorial website “Jannah”, Arnold Zable, Eva Sallis, Steve Biddulph, Morris Gleitzman, playwright Hannie Rayson, artist Kate Durham.

All understand and have contributed to the epic power of the SIEV X story. These days I am only one in a large and growing cast of brave Australians who recognise the importance of SIEV X and will not let it be censored out of Australian history to suit the government’s political convenience.

I have now largely withdrawn from SIEV X research and advocacy. The torch has passed to others. In terms of professional historical research, Marg Hutton leads the way.

Two major upcoming events in Canberra coincide with the 5th anniversary of the sinking.

At 2 pm on Sunday, October15, people from all over Australia will gather in Weston Park for a memorial ceremony “The Raising of the Poles”, inspired by author Steve Biddulph and the Uniting Church of Australia, that will honour the 353 parents and children who drowned on SIEV X. The lead speaker is Jon Stanhope, ACT Chief Minister. Over 300 decorated timber poles will be assembled in procession, showing the eventual design of a permanent memorial on Lake Burley Griffin. Details here (pdf 149KB) 

On Thursday, October 19, - the actual anniversary - Emeritus Professor John Molony and Steve Biddulph will launch a new educational project initiated by Don Maclurcan at Parliament House: an Australian Secondary Schools Case Study on The Sinking of the SIEV X.

The project was developed in consultation with a wide range of stakeholders and is planned for use in Year 11 Modern History classes across a number of States and Territories. It aims to provide a balanced, impartial set of materials for a 6-week case study, fitting within the New South Wales Board of Studies' Modern History Stage 6 syllabus, via which Year 11 students can develop the confidence, knowledge and skills to address the question, “Was the sinking of SIEV X and subsequent loss of life preventable?” More information can be found here.