Who Knows What to Believe About Last Night’s 'A Current Affair' on Nauru

Last night's A Current Affair marked the first time an Australian television crew had been allowed to film the offshore refugee detention centre at Nauru, and host Tracy Grimshaw began the broadcast with a promise that "you'll see exactly how the detainees live."

The ACA team apparently worked for five months on the Nauru project, competing with many other news outlets to be allowed unprecedented access to the site. "To be frank," Grimshaw said, "we were surprised to get approval."

She was eager to address "unflattering speculation" and emphasise that ACA had not sought approval or help from the Federal Government. But while last night's report didn't sugarcoat life on Nauru, it also didn't live up to claims recently made by The Guardian by traumatologist Paul Stevenson, who worked in the aftermath of the Bali bombings and the Boxing Day tsunami, but said nothing he'd witnessed was as bad as the treatment of asylum seekers on Nauru.

From the outset, the ACA report focused on how detention centre conditions had improved. It showed that many of Nauru's asylum seekers no longer live in tents, but in more permanent shelter structures, some with air conditioners and televisions.

Children can attend local schools in town, and thanks to the new open centre policy, detainees can "come and go" as they please. They're still essentially imprisoned by the water surrounding Nauru, but the prison is larger and more air conditioned than previously.

One woman told ACA journalist Caroline Marcus about how she had been married on the centre out of necessity, in order to protect herself against sexual assault. After this interview, A Current Affair grudgingly concluded that "most people seem unhappy here."

"Fuck Australia!" said one man to the camera. Another who had been resettled outside of the camp said that living on Nauru was essentially the same as being detained. "Nauru's a small island, not a living country. How can we make a future?" asked another man.

Many of those interviewed by Marcus had been detained for more two or three years, with no end in sight. She talked to Mustafa, the best friend of Omid Masoumali, who set himself on fire in April and subsequently died in a Brisbane hospital. "Where is Omid now?," he asked.

While ACA interviewed many detainees, it also allowed the Nauruan government plenty of camera time. The President of Nauru, Baron Waqa, had plenty to say about ungrateful refugees complaining about their living situations.

"Let me put it this way, they're well looked after. They're welcome here. There are some of those who want to be elsewhere, and it's not easy, it's not easy," he said.

Somewhat of a victim blamer, Nauru Justice Minister David Adeang claimed the sexual assault reports emerging from Nauru were exaggerated. "Somebody gets pregnant, they claim it was sexual assault, rape, things like that. Trying to influence the public against the Australian Government's policy. Which isn't true."

"We try our best to make it very comfortable for them here," he said.

Of course, the Nauru government is well compensated for housing Australia's asylum seekers. It makes sense that ministers would refute rape claims, but ACA didn't broach this issue.

ACA also interviewed Nauru citizens about the detainees. "The locals we spoke to said they welcomed the refugees," said Marcus. "They're living better than the Nauruans," one local told her. "They don't have to pay for utilities."

The report ended with footage of a demonstration where asylum seekers compared the Australian government to Nazis, with detainees shouting that they feel like they're in prison.

"But the confusing thing is," said Marcus, "they're free to walk out of the camp any time."

Out of the camp, for sure. But definitely not off the island. While this was certainly a rare example of an ACA report worth tuning in for—and it appears Marcus did a did try to interview a wide range of people living on Nauru—it's still difficult to know how much to believe.

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