Australia was a nation gripped by fear and preoccupied with national security and defence in 2002, according to a former senior minister.
The curtain has been pulled back on the deliberations of the former prime minister John Howard’s government, with the release of federal cabinet papers by the National Archives of Australia.
The papers show the cabinet spent a year wrestling with issues surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US.
Howard government minister Amanda Vanstone said the community was “very apprehensive” after 9/11 and thought it was “as serious as you can get”.
“Then when this (Bali bombings) happened, it’s more serious, and there has to be a greater focus on watching who’s coming in and for law enforcement agencies and security agencies to get everything we need,” she said.
“Because that’s your first job … to protect the Australian people.
“It was a real smack in the face with a hot iron.”
The documents reveal that national security and defence were a dominant focus of the Howard cabinet throughout 2002.
The cabinet dealt with laws to provide greater powers to security agencies, as well as agreeing to enhanced screening at airports.
There were also extensive discussions around the US-led military campaign targeting Islamist terrorist groups.
“Australians were very anxious at this time, and it warranted an appropriate response from government,” Ms Vanstone said.
However, the cabinet papers shed no light on a critical meeting – discussions between Mr Howard and then US president George W Bush on Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s alleged acquisition of weapons of mass destruction.
There is one note of an oral report by Mr Howard on “the progress of work being done in the United Nations on the issue of Iraq’s possession of and attempts to secure or maintain weapons of mass destruction, and on possible United Nations resolutions in that regard”.
And there was a similar verbal report from then foreign minister Alexander Downer.
Historian David Lee said the documents were the “top of the pyramid” and he expected there were departmental records that could be requested for public access.
“This is really the first step in the process of acquiring knowledge about this period,” he said.
After January 1, anyone can apply for further releases.”
What else is revealed in the Howard-era cabinet papers?
Mr Howard won the November 2001 federal election against the odds, as his government dealt with the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and a surge in asylum seeker boat arrivals.
The newly released papers shed light on several decisions the Howard government took.
Here are some of the contents of the papers.
- Agreement on setting up a detention facility on Christmas Island
- Finance and Prime Minister and Cabinet departments at odds over non-humanitarian migration numbers, but settled on a compromise figure
- Cabinet established the Australian Crime Commission
- Issues around East Timor gas development and division of revenue discussed (cabinet papers relating to this remain secret)
- Anti-terrorism laws approved and rolled out after September 11, with enhanced screening at airports
- Cabinet accepted detention of David Hicks at Guantanamo Bay as lawful
- Discussions about Saddam Hussein acquiring weapons of mass destruction, but documents relating to Howard-Bush talks remain secret
- Cabinet said no to signing the Kyoto protocol because of the harm it would do to industry and the fact other major nations were not signing
- Study into high-speed rail cancelled due to the project’s massive cost
- Cabinet approved a review of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission and gave a firm no to an apology to Indigenous people, a treaty and constitutional recognition
- Cabinet discussions on Collins-class submarine upgrade and an Australia-Indonesia defence deal were not disclosed.
-with AAP
