Transcript
RONNY KNIGHT: The thing is that no one considered our evidence, even though we went through it twice. We went through with an appeal, judicial review. the honourable justice that was looking at our review failed to connect the dots and failed to go right through the system. The biggest failing was that he was supposed to rule two weeks after I had launched my application, and that was in April last year. For them to come to a decision (a year later) one day before the election writs open makes us all suspicious. How far are we going to put up with this sort of thing in our country? Our judiciary is the last bastion of hope for justice for any country. And if the judiciary is - I'm not saying it is - but if the judiciary is compromised, then what hope do we have as a country?
JOHNNY BLADES: Interesting that in the midst of all this Peter Dutton, the Australian Immigration Minister, should state that you had been convicted fo fraud amongst the various disputed claims he's been making about recent problems at the detention centre on your island. What's your response to Peter Dutton?
RK: Empty drops make the loudest noise. He was just trying to discredit me in the eyes of the Australian public which I don't really give a stuff about them because I'm a Papua New Guinean citizen and I'm with my people in Manus, and my people know me back to front.
JB: He claimed after the Good Friday trouble (naval officers shooting at the detention centre) that there'd been an incident related to a boy which which was causing the unrest which was subsequently discounted by provincial police in Manus. Mr Dutton has persisted with it and is talking about classified information. This is all sort of smoke and mirrors stuff, isn't it?
RK: Yeah. Too many secret sources, it sounds like a Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe, doesn't it? It just doesn't make sense, Mr Dutton's assertion that he has certain facts that he's not releasing to the public. what's so secret about it? Is it a state secret? Come on, tell us. Tell us what is happening. You know, we're on the ground, we know what's happening here, but apparently he knows what we don't know, so tell us. The big thing I have to say on that one is that if anything happened to one of my citizens, especially a child, I would have been the first one roaring at the top of my voice and you would feel it all over the world, as happened when the ten-year-old girl got raped. This thing did not have a bearing that issue. It happened a couple of weeks before. Knowing my people, if anything had happened to that child, the incident (reaction) would have happened at that time.
JB: The Manus centre... do you have any hope now that there will be some closure?
RK: I will still talk because my people are the victims here. we're caught on both sides. Not all refugees are bad people. there's a certain core of them that are bad. People have been locked up for four years when they should have been here for less than six months. it all goes back to Australia passing the buck. But I can assure you that if I can get back into parliament (after the upcoming elections), which I believe I will be doing, and if I'm in the government I shall make it an issue that we have to do something about this as quickly as possible. We cannot stay like this and continue as we are. As I said, any sane-thinking person right now can see that only the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) can help.
