In September 2005 mild mannered peace activist Scott Parkin was detained for 5 days by Australian Federal Police and then deported under John Howards anti-terrorist laws. Parkin was not told what he did to make him a ’security risk’ to Australia.

After an inquiry and two years later, ASIO was forced to admit that Parkin was deported after ‘foreign pressure’ was brought to bear by US interests, most likely then US Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney was a board member of Halliburton, a company notorious for profiteering in Iraq. Parkin had been involved in anti-Halliburton activities in the US, particularly a propensity to dress up as a “Billionaire for Bombing Baghdad”. Hardly a security risk activity.

After Parkin’s detention and deportation, national protests were held all over Australia. 26 people wrote statutory declarations in Parkins defence, stating that he did not encourage, talk about or advocate any form of violent protest while in Australia. This directly contradicted the suggestions of then Attorney general Phillip Ruddock that Parkin advocated “politically motivated violence”.

In November 2007 Parkin was granted a court decision to be made cognizant of the reasons for his deportation, but those reasons still remain a public secret after an appeal by ASIO. In November 2007 peace advocates and friends of Parkin wrote their own ’security assessment’ “Where the bloody hell are you?”

Tracy Solum in San Francisco has made this great new film about the Parkin affair: “Deporting Democracy”

See also: Friends of Scott Parkin for more details

I interviewed Scott Parkin shortly after his deportation in 2005 [listen to mp3 here at radio4all.net]