(Transcript from World News Radio)
A leaked police report from Papua New Guinea has found an Iranian asylum seeker on Manus Island died from multiple blows to the head.
It's found the riots at the detention centre were triggered by the handling of questions from the asylum seekers about their future.
It comes as the federal government conducts a review of the unrest on Manus.
Greg Dyett reports.
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Manus Island's provincial police commander Alex N'Drasal prepared his report the day after 23-year-old Iranian asylum seeker Reza Berati died of what he wrote were multiple head injuries that could have been caused by a heavy object.
The commander reported that in the week before the violence took place the asylum seekers submitted a list of questions about their plight.
At the top of their list they ask: Is there a process? What is it?
This week a whisteblower told the SBS Dateline program that no such process existed.
Migration agent Liz Thompson was employed on Manus to conduct refugee assessment interviews and says she was told to tell detainees their only option would be settlement in PNG.
This was despite the fact that local PNG politicians had made it clear that the detainees would never be allowed to settle in the country.
"There is no process. There was nothing for me to do. There is no process for me to assist people with. It's fake. I don't believe that there is a way to fix this. It's not designed as a processing centre. It's designed as an experiment in the active creation of horror to secure deterrence (of people smuggling)."
Liz Thompson suspects the detainees got upset after a PNG official told them that the PNG government had not made a decision to re-settle them.
"I suspect that he was more honest about what was actually going on which obviously we weren't allowed to do but yes, that was, that's what happened on Sunday, that's what happened on Sunday. You know, the meeting occurred and then the protests started very soon afterwards (Davis) It seemed that he called a spade a spade? It's not clear that they're going to be re-settled in PNG (Thompson) Which is simply what members of the Papua New Guinean parliament had been saying that very week."
As to what occurred during the rioting, the police commander wrote that the confrontation was between the management of the centre, guards of the G4S company, as one party, and the transferees as another party.
The leaking of the police report comes as the federal government releases the terms of reference for the review it's conducting headed by former public servant Robert Cornall.
Labor MP Chris Bowen provided this view of Mr Cornall and his task.
"Robert Cornall is a good reviewer. He's a good and respected independent public servant. But our quarrel, let me make this clear, our quarrel is with the government and their culture of secrecy, their addiction, their addiction to being sneaky with the Australian people and not upfront with the Australian people and we will never take a backward step in holding them to account for that."
The terms of reference show the review will look at security breaches, security management, the appropriateness of service providers' response and their ability to manage protest activity.
The review will be undertaken in co-operation with the Papua New Guinea government and a preliminary report is due by the end of March.
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre's Kon Karapanagiotidis says a broader inquiry is needed.
"You look at the key terms of reference and where in those terms of reference are they looking at the things that are causing it? I would like to see where in this we have actually got some accountability about how government practices and policies created this and what they're going to do differently to deal with the refugee claims and do it in a timely manner and a transparent manner."
The Australian Greens also say the review is inadequate.
Deputy leader Adam Bandt says parliament should also be taking up the key issue of Reza Berati's death.
"A man has been killed while in the Australian government's care. There are now reports that this man had his head beaten in while under Australia's care, that's what parliament should be debating."
Former Sydney Morning Herald journalist Margo Kingston draws parallels with what's occuring now to past immigration scandals such as the unlawful detention of Australian permanent resident Cornelia Rau for ten months in 2004 and 2005.
She says when the then Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone failed to announce a judicial inquiry and settled instead for an investigation carried out by a former Federal Police Commissioner, she and other members of the Canberra press gallery subjected the minister to tough questioning.
Margo Kingston says the press gallery has failed to do the same to Scott Morrison.
"I've just been devastated that the press gallery has had no questions at all to Scott Morrison on his inquiry and its powers, zero. I've been tweeting and tweeting for days, I've been bringing up the Rau and Alvarez matters, I've been explaining the playbook, I've been just begging journalists to their job and they just haven't done it."
Margo Kingston says there are compelling reasons why a judicial inquiry is needed.
"It's crucial in something as serious as this, a possible murder and serial grievous bodily harm inside a detention centre where we are responsible for safety and welfare of the inmates, that we have a judicial inquiry, a public inquiry, an inquiry where evidence can be compelled, where people must give evidence on oath for fear of perjury where witnesses who come forward can be protected from intimidation or, or threats."
The PNG government is conducting its own formal investigation into the unrest on Manus.
