Transcript
DAVID LAMBOURNE: From a distance, it's difficult to try and grasp the thinking of the responsible minister, in this case Minister Adeang. But it's not surprising, based on the contact I've had previously with the minister and the actions that he's undertaken over the last couple of years, that this is just another blatant abuse of power by Minister Adeang and the Waqa government in Nauru.
DON WISEMAN: Is it legal?
DL: The Passports Act does give the minister the passports of a Nauruan passport holder, but only for prospective concerns. So he would have to have concern that at some point in the future, former president Dabwido was going to pose a security risk to the people and country of Nauru. It's not appropriate for a passport to be cancelled for alleged past conduct and the powers of the minister, while he does have the power to cancel a passport, he doesn't have the power to do so because of something somebody might have done in the past.
DW: So Sprent Dabwido has a very good chance then of overturning this in the court?
DL: The problem is, from a legal perspective, is that the court cannot order the minister to grant Sprent his passport. All the court can do - and this is just a basic principle of judicial review - is if the court considers the minister has made the wrong decision, or has made a decision that he doesn't have the power to make, or a decision that he's made based on irrelevant considerations, all the court can do is send the matter back to the minister to be re-decided. And so the court doesn't have the absolute power to order that Sprent's passport be returned to him.
DW: Alright, now you are one of a number of lawyers who's been battling for months and months to try and get into the country to represent you clients there. How is that process going now?
DL: Well we've basically got to the point where we had been holding on to see what the outcome of the elections might have been, to see whether there might have been a change in attitude on the part of the government - the result went the other way. So we've basically conceded that there was little point with persisting with my visa application, so any assistance that I am providing is now being done from afar rather than with any prospect of me returning to Nauru in the short term.
DW: In terms of the prospects for these politicians and just normal Nauruans who have lost their passports and are facing charges, and have lost their jobs and so on because of the actions of the government. How do you rate their immediate prospects in terms of overcoming all of those hurdles?
DL: Well not good. We saw with the Roland Kun case that, really, that the only way that that matter ended up being resolved was based on an extremely generous act of the New Zealand government in granting him citizenship. But had it not been for that act Roland would still be stuck in Nauru separated from his family. The individuals in that current case, they are just being subjected to be a clearly authoritarian act on the part of what appears to be an irrational government.
