Australia’s ambassador for people smuggling has never been to Nauru, one of Australia’s two key offshore processing destinations, it was reported on Wednesday.
Andrew Goledzinowski was appointed in November 2014 as the diplomat leading Australia’s international engagement against people smuggling, trafficking and slavery.
However according to freedom of information documents obtained by the ABC, Goledzinowski has not set foot on the island nation at the heart of the federal government’s action against people smuggling.
The records from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade show that no one in Goledzinowski’s role has visited Nauru since 2010, despite the offshore processing centre reopening in 2012.
He has visited Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island twice.
Previous ambassadors have had a key role in Australia’s immigration policy including in negotiating the offshore processing deal with Nauru. Goledzinowski’s responsibilities now include assisting with the resettlement of the almost 400 people on the island currently under Nauru’s care, as well as more than 870 on Manus Island, and in the negotiations with third countries. Nauru has only offered short-term resettlement to refugees.
At the time of Goledzinowski’s appointment, the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, said he would work closely with the Operation Sovereign Borders joint agency taskforce to ensure government coordination of the international elements.
“The ambassador for people smuggling issues plays an important role in promoting effective and practical international cooperation to counter people smuggling in support of Operation Sovereign Borders,” she said.
The department said Goledzinowski’s role focuses on ensuring the international resettlement and deterrence measures are effectively coordinated in federal policy.
During an international standoff over several boats carrying about 2,000 Rohingya asylum seekers, Goledzinowski said a specially convened summit heard that resettlement was “not a durable solution”. He said at least one other country would likely look to Australia for briefings on its asylum seeker policies.
Goledzinowski is one of three diplomats to represent Australia on behalf of a specific policy, including Natasha Stott Despoja as the ambassador for women and girls, and Patrick Suckling as ambassador for the environment.
The government says it is in negotiations with third countries to resettle refugees from Nauru and Manus Island. Government policy, first announced by the former prime minister Kevin Rudd, dictates that no one who arrived by boat after July 2013 will ever settle in Australia.
A $55m deal with Cambodia to take people from Nauru has been taken up by just six people, with most of them later going home rather than stay in the south-east Asian country.
The government said this week its plan to ban those resettled elsewhere from ever returning to Australia under any visa was necessary to strengthen negotiations with other countries and to send further “signals” to people smugglers.
Labor unanimously voted to block to the bill.
