From the SMH The man who oversaw a host of immigration blunders, including the wrongful detention and deportation of Australian citizens, has stepped down as head of the Immigration Department and will take up the new job of Australia's ambassador to Indonesia. Bill Farmer's departure as secretary of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) comes days before the expected release of former federal police chief Mick Palmer's report into immigration bungles. In his scathing draft report tabled in Queensland Parliament, Mr Palmer found a series of serious failures by the Immigration Department aggravated wrongly detained Australian woman Cornelia Rau's mental illness. He said the Immigration Department breached its own guidelines for dealing with detainees and Ms Rau received inadequate health care. The Prime Minister, John Howard, announced Mr Famer's new appointment today, but denied he was falling on his sword while Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone and her predecessor Attorney-General Philip Ruddock escaped unscathed.

Alice In Wonderland is alive & well in Howard government.

The principle of accountability, long ago jettisoned for government ministers, has now been abolished in the politicised upper echelons of the public service, thereby aligning government standards on corporate governance with those observed by the top end of town.

The QLD Bundaberg Hospital enquiry has already revealed how 'rotten' government has become in this country, with public servants guilty of gross negligence & improper behaviour not only being 'indemnified' by their government employers but having their legal costs funded by the very taxpayers they have failed.

Doubtless the Palmer Enquiry will reveal the existence of a 'few bad apples' at the bottom of the DIMIA barrel, just like US government enquiries found to be the case with Abu Ghraib & Guantanamo Bay.

So much for the 'values' that Bush, Blair & Howard self-righteously vow to defend from terrorism.

‘Senator Vanstone is well able to protect herself.

 

I operate on a principle that ministers should go if they have been directly responsible for significant failings or if their continued presence as a minister causes the Government ongoing damage.

 

That's always been the true Westminster principle.

 

It's never been the Westminster principle that if something goes wrong in the corner of a department for which a minister is not directly responsible, that minister should resign.

 

That is nonsense, it's never been the case and I don't Senator Vanstone needs any protecting. She can look after herself very effectively.’

The Editor

Sydney Morning Herald                                                    July 15, 2005

So, John Howard has given apologies to DIMIA victims, Cornelia Rau & Vivian Alvarez Solon (‘PM lists ways to say sorry’, Herald, July 15)?

 

In the house behind the picket fence where I grew up, I was taught that apologies should be offered as expressions of genuine regret, in the sincere hope that they would be accepted, rather than as magnanimous gestures, grudgingly extracted by undeniable truth.

 

DIMIA’s dysfunctional culture is a true cameo of John Howard & his government.