New Revelation on 'Kids Overboard'

John Howard must be wondering from which direction the next grenade will come.

First it was a group of 43 retired military and diplomatic luminaries who wrote a letter condemning the government's lack of truth when committing to our involvement in Iraq. Now a senior public servant, Mike Scrafton, writes a letter to 'The Australian' newspaper, claiming that John Howard knew all along that the 'children overboard' incident never happened.

The government used the issue to gain support and divide the opposition, but never provided video proof of the claims during the campaign. After the 'children overboard' claims were made on 7 November 2001, video evidence was claimed to exist but never saw the light of day before the election was held on 28 November 2001. Only still photos that didn't conclusively prove or disprove the claims were produced.

It was not until after the election that the government was forced to react to the reality that asylum seekers' children were not treated in this manner.

An interesting question is why Scrafton waited so long before saying anything. On the ABC 7.30 Report tonight he claimed, as a career public servant seconded into the Defence Minister's office, he felt duty bound to comply with the edict that perons in his position had to toe the government line on issues. His motivation to now go public had a lot to do with the way the 43 eminent persons were denigrated by elements of the Liberal party. What the 43 said about this government's lack of truth rang true to his own experiences during his time in the Defence Minister's office.

This is just another sad indication of depths that this Prime Minister will go to to stay in power.

It's a pity that most of the country is too distracted during the opening week of the Athens Olympics to bother much with federal politics.