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Head of the OIPC Communities Engagement Branch, Gregory Andrews... he appeared disguised as a "former youth worker" on a recent Lateline program to back contentious claims by cabinet minister Mal Brough about alleged paedophile rings. |
OIPC's 'BABY-FACED ASSASSIN': Senior public servant adopts bogus identity; backs minister's claims
Issue 109 - 13 Jul 2006
By Chris Graham, Brian Johnstone & Amy McQuire
NATIONAL, July 12, 2006: A senior federal Aboriginal affairs bureaucrat adopted a bogus identity to appear on one of the nation's most respected television current affairs programs to back contentious claims by a federal cabinet minister about alleged paedophile rings in Aboriginal communities.
The man was introduced to viewers of ABC TV's Lateline program last month as an "anonymous former youth worker from Central Australia."
He is in fact the head of the Communities Engagement Branch within the Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination in Canberra.
He is Mr Gregory Andrews, who has described himself to colleagues as the "baby-faced assassin", a nickname he acquired during his time at the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade.
Mr Andrews' appearance on Lateline on June 21 followed sustained media pressure on the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough to substantiate claims he had earlier made on the John Laws radio program that "paedophile rings" were operating throughout Aboriginal communities.
NIT has been unable to establish if Mr Andrews' superiors in Mr Brough's department or the Minister are aware that Mr Andrews adopted his bogus identity to make claims that Aboriginal children were being used as "sex slaves" in Central Australia.
Lateline has refused to comment on why Mr Andrew's identity was suppressed - his face was filmed in shadow and his voice was digitally altered.
In a brief response to written questions by NIT, Lateline stated that it is "ABC's policy not to reveal the names of anonymous sources" and that Lateline "stands by the integrity of its piece on Mutitjulu. It was both fair and accurate".
On May 16, Mr Brough was interviewed on Lateline following a story the previous day (by Lateline) on a leaked brief written by Central Australian prosecutor Nanette Rogers, which documented cases of sexual violence in Aboriginal communities.
On Lateline that evening, Mr Brough repeated claims he had made earlier in the day on the Laws program.
He told television viewers: "Everybody in those communities knows who runs the paedophile rings. They know who brings in the petrol, they know who sells the ganja. They need to be taken out of the community and dealt with, not by tribal law, but by the judicial system that operates throughout Australia."
The following evening (May 17), Lateline broadcast a story headlined 'Brough backs away from paedophile ring claims', after intense media scrutiny prompted the minister to urge journalists not to get "hung up about specifics", such as his use of the word 'rings'.
A month later, Lateline aired its Mutitjulu story, alleging that a paedophile had been operating in the community under the protection of local Aboriginal men.
NIT is not disputing that there are some serious issues in Mutitjulu and other remote Aboriginal communities around the nation.
The Lateline story quoted credible sources, including a former doctor from Mutitjulu and a domestic violence worker from Alice Springs, both of whom identified sexual abuse in the community and both of whom spoke of violence in Central Australia.
The domestic violence worker - Jane Lloyd, manager of the NPY Women's Council in Alice Springs - was quoted by Lateline saying paedophiles in Central Australia were "organised" and used kinship and relationships for protection.
A month earlier, on ABC Radio's World Today program, Ms Lloyd made the point that the use of the word 'rings' was not correct.
"In my experience in the last sort of 12, 14 years, I'm not aware of any paedophile rings. I am aware of paedophile activity, that there are men in communities who exploit their position, within families, within the community, in abusing under-aged girls, children, and boys, and also young women who are vulnerable and at risk because of petrol sniffing or they have really weak families."
But the sensational hearsay allegations in the story about alleged sexual slavery rested entirely on the claims of Mr Andrews and Mr Brough.
The story was unveiled to viewers with a replay of the footage from Mr Brough's paedophile ring claims.
Mr Andrews, introduced as a "former youth worker (anonymous)" is quoted early in the story backing his minister's claims.
"The people who are in control are the drug dealers and the petrol warlords and the paedophiles," Mr Andrews said.
A quote from Mr Brough later in the story backed Andrews' version of life in Mutitjulu: "There are examples of people that have been operating and at a very senior level within Indigenous communities, that have such power over those communities and that use children at their own whim. And they have been dealt with in some cases. In other cases, they are still free and you need to get the evidence."
Mr Andrews then makes his hearsay claims about sexual slavery.
"It's true that there are predatory men in the central deserts who are systematically abusing young children. I've been told by a number of people of men in the region who go to other communities and get young girls and bring them back to their community and keep them there as sex slaves and... exchange sex for petrol with those young petrol sniffers."
A portion of that voice grab from Mr Andrews was used by Lateline to promote its story on ABC Radio's flagship current affairs program, PM.
A Lateline journalist told PM the story "substantiated" Mal Brough's claims about paedophile rings.
PM presenter: "The Federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister Mal Brough was bitterly attacked after the (Nanette Rogers) story for suggesting there were paedophile "rings" in remote communities. But tonight's Lateline story gives the Minister some backing."
Lateline journalist: "...when Mal Brough, after Lateline's Nanette Rogers story made that claim (about paedophile rings)... he was attacked for it. But what we have found corroborates what he said. Basically there was a paedophile and he was protected by senior men, and we've also discovered that many of those senior men have serious criminal records."
Lateline also broadcast claims by Mr Andrews that he had seen women with "screwdrivers or other implements through their legs"; that he had seen four-year-old children gambling; and that he had "learnt" of children as young as five "watching pornography in abandoned houses while their parents were 200km away, drinking".
Mr Andrews broke down and cried during the Lateline interview while claiming that he had withdrawn statements to NT police about a paedophile targeting Mutitjulu children after he was threatened by a local Aboriginal leader.
LATELINE JOURNALIST: The Aboriginal youth worker... attempted to expose this man and highlight the illegal drug trade in Mutitjulu. This came at a terrible personal cost.
FORMER YOUTH WORKER: People who belong in these communities, they've got nowhere to go, so it's much harder for them to confront the perpetrators of the abuse.
LATELINE JOURNALIST: And you did try and confront people, didn't you?
FORMER YOUTH WORKER: I did.
LATELINE JOURNALIST: What happened to you?
FORMER YOUTH WORKER: All of the incidents of sexual abuse and violence that I saw, I reported to the police and I testified in a court about the violence. I testified that children as young as four had been diagnosed with sexually transmitted diseases.
LATELINE JOURNALIST: (Pause) It's really hard, isn't it?
FORMER YOUTH WORKER: Um...I was threatened. When I returned to the community that I was working in, the region, I was threatened with violence on a number of occasions. My wife was threatened and we were intimidated - to the extent that while we were in hospital with the birth of our 2-day-old child, we were receiving harassing phone calls from people who were trying to threaten and intimidate us to withdraw the statements that I'd made to the police.
LATELINE JOURNALIST: And did you withdraw those statements?
FORMER YOUTH WORKER: I did withdraw the statements, yes.
LATELINE JOURNALIST: And is that your biggest regret?
FORMER YOUTH WORKER: It's something that I've been thinking about a lot.
NIT has made repeated requests to Mr Andrews in the past week to discuss his appearance on the program, the claims he made, and any knowledge his superiors may have had regarding his appearance.
NIT also sent Mr Andrews a series of written questions and we sought comment from Minister Brough's office and from the head of the Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination, Wayne Gibbons (in a series of written questions).
None of them had responded at the time of this issue going to press.
 
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