"A FORMER chief of the Australian navy has accused the Federal Government of acting like Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in its handling of defence and refugee issues."  The News Website  (as at November 9 2001

Retired Vice Admiral Sir Richard Peek is reported to have said the government has "muzzled" our defence forces about their work with asylum seekers to deliberately keep the Australian public in the dark.

 "Under the current rules the services generally are completely muzzled and treated rather in the way the German population was treated by Dr Goebbels in World War II - not allowed to say anything in public," he told ABC radio.

"If it's not the Australian navy, I think it's the Australian public. They're being kept from the truth of what's going on in the world.

"The press are not allowed to talk to people. You had a ridiculous situation in Western Australia recently when the wives of the servicemen who were going over to the Gulf were told not to say anything to the press. "I know of an academic (at the Australian Defence Force Academy) who's been told he's not to say anything to the press.

"This is censorship in its worst form."

Admiral Peek this kind of censorship is "unprecedented in what is essentially peace time". He pointed out that when mail was censored during World War Two it was done by legislation not by a ministerial decree.

It is another clear indication of the Howard government attempt to scare Australians into a reactionary, uncompassionate stance on asylum seekers.