Both Howard's and Reith's departments knew the poll campaign slur of asylum seekers was false. The following article by Andrew Clennell and Tom Allard shows how John Howard's own department and the Defence department were both told just days after the government's explosive claims that children were thrown off an asylum-seeker's boat that the allegations were false.

On October 10 - the same day that Peter Reith released photos of children in the water to support his claims about children being thrown overboard - government officials knew it was false.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 14/2/2002, p1

Who can we believe in the whole sorry children overboard affair? John Howard and his ministers bleat that it’s not their fault because no-one told them. Peter Reith knew but says he didn’t tell anyone. The only certainty is that the Australian people were deliberately misled through a web of lies and deception. This government has lied, spied and denied.

An article by Matt Price in the Weekend Australian explains that when politicians, greedy for power, met bureaucrats too incompetent or scared to challenge them, truth about the boatpeople became expendable…

Set aside, for a moment, the contentious question of whether or not Howard, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock and former defence minister Peter Reith were deliberately lying when, at the start of the election campaign, they angrily berated boatpeople for tossing their children into the sea.

What’s left is a ruthless political machine in full election campaign mode, desperate to exploit the asylum-seekers at every turn.

Ministerial advisers haranguing naval officers to boost their election spin campaigns. Senior defence staff cowed by their political masters. Departmental heads hopelessly vague about what actually happened. Ministers reacting on unbelievably thin information which they refuse to check before leaping in front of a microphone.

Source: The Weekend Australian 16-17/2/2002

Michelle Grattan writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that the lies the Government perpetuated gave a boost to its successful election campaigning on the boat people. But now it is reaping the consequences of the falsehood. It is also harvesting the results of its wider ‘whatever it takes’ attitude…Paradoxically, Howard who seems such a stickler for proprieties, has not been too fussed about them when it comes to his Government’s dealings with the Public Service and related institutions.

The affair has shown a depressing picture of those in power either not seeking or actively rejecting facts which didn’t serve their political needs.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald 15/2/2002

During an election campaign fought on the issue of asylum-seekers, John Howard, Philip Ruddock and Peter Reith peddled falsehoods about boatpeople, then failed to correct their slurs, even when public servants at the highest levels knew the truth.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald 15/2/2002

Source: The Age Editorial 15/2/2002

Source: The Australian Financial Review 14/2/2002

Revealed: the full picture

By Sid Marris
Ian Henderson

The navy released only two pictures from more than 100 taken of sailors rescuing boatpeople last October, images the then defence minister seized on to suggest asylum-seekers had thrown children overboard.

Labor yesterday released a selection of pictures taken at the rescue, claiming they proved the Coalition’s deceit during the election campaign.

Source: The Australian 18/2/2002