Notice given 17 July 2003

1636  Senator Nettle: To ask the Minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs—

(1) How much money has the Australian Government spent on human rights training in Burma.

(2) How much money does the Government propose to spend in the future on human rights training in Burma.

(3) Why is the AusAID report on the Burma human rights workshops not open to public scrutiny.

(4) Can the human rights workshops in Burma be postponed until there is official dialogue between the National League for Democracy, the State Peace and Development Council and ethnic minority groups.

1637  Senator Collins: To ask the Minister for Justice and Customs—With reference to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) response to Senator Collins’  question on notice 58, from the additional estimates hearings of the Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee in November 2002, in which it was indicated by the AFP that assistance was sought of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) personnel at Post to calculate where the vessel [SIEV X] may have foundered:

(1) What was the outcome of the RAN’s investigations into calculating where the SIEV X sank.

(2) (a) What was the information that the RAN obtained about the company believed to have owned SIEV X; and (b) can the AFP name that company.

(3) Was the North Jakarta Harbourmaster’s report of the SIEV X survivor rescue coordinates, dated 24 October 2001 (10241530 G), taken into account when the RAN made attempts to calculate where the SIEV X foundered; if not, why not.

(4) Did the AFP or any other Australian agency, whilst investigating where the SIEV X had foundered, ever interview the Harbourmaster at the Sunda Kelapa Port, North Jakarta; if so, what was the outcome of this interview; if not, why not.

(5) If the Harbourmaster’s coordinates have not been fully investigated by the AFP, how then can the AFP claim ‘all avenues of enquiry have been exhausted’ with regard to calculating where SIEV X foundered.

1639  Senator Collins: To ask the Minister for Defence—With reference to the P3 patrol map data obtained during the period 18 to 20 October 2001, which appears in chapter 8 of the report of the Select Committee on a Certain Maritime Incident, dated October 2002, and the P3 Orion maps of 20 October 2001 that were supplied to the committee, which indicate that the flight (see maps A-9, A-10, A-11) from the NW end of the flight path to the NE end of the flight path, some 250 nautical miles away, took 2 hours:

(1) Is it the case that the flight should have taken only one hour between these two points if the plane was flying at a rate of 200 to 330 knots per hour.

(2) Can the department indicate why the flight of 20 October 2001 took longer than the normal one hour to fly this path.

(3) What were the names of the crew on the P3 Orion flight on 20 October 2001.

(4) Can any of the data recorded for, or by, the crew members on the P3 Orion flights between 18 and 20 October 2001 (under Operation Relex) be made public, for example, sortie green, inflight REDS, Post Mission Form PURPLE, and mission tapes.