Operation Secretive Bureaucrats: the cover-up list

Here at Crikey we’ve been finding it difficult to keep track of how many different things are now subject to the “on-water” secrecy test associated with Operation Sovereign Borders, because of the tendency of the bureaucrats associated with OSB to invoke “public interest immunity” about pretty much anything related to how navy and Customs vessels are secretly sending asylum seekers back to Indonesia, including the circumstances in which Australian vessels “inadvertently” invaded Indonesia in December and January.

To help keep track, we’re keeping a running tab of those matters that are deemed by the government and its bureaucrats to fall under OSB’s all-encompassing secrecy provisions:

• what flag Australia’s orange life boats used to send asylum seekers back to Indonesia sail under;
• whether the life boats are marked to indicate what vessels they have been launched from;
• safety assessments of the equipment used by navy personnel;
• what the difference is between the words “patrols” and “tactical missions“;
• whether the navy has any responsibility for asylum seekers once they are pushed back within Indonesia’s 12-mile territorial limit;
• whether Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said in a radio interview “we turn boats back where it is safe to do so, and we are doing it in a way which ensures that it’s safe”;
• whether Australian naval vessels have GPS systems or leave navigational lights on at all times;
• any information about training of Royal Australian Navy personnel, or any procedures that “may be used on-water” (revealing that is inconsistent with “the information requirements across the battle space“); and
• videos on Youtube. “I am not going to comment on what is on YouTube. We are not going to get involved.”

Spotted something else that belongs on the list? Drop us a line.