Editing Children Overboard affair (section)

==Senate inquiry==

A Senate select committee inquiry, composed mainly of non-government senators, found that no children were thrown overboard from SIEV 4, that the evidence did not support the Children Overboard claim, and that the photographs<ref>[http://www.truthoverboard.com/photos.html Truth overboard] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080128193146/http://www.truthoverboard.com/photos.html |date=28 January 2008 }}</ref> purported to show children thrown into the sea were taken after SIEV 4 sank.<ref name='Senate_MainReport_ExecSumm'/> In response, Howard said that he acted on the intelligence he was given at the time.

A minority dissenting report, authored by government senators on the committee, described the inquiry as driven by a "misplaced sense of self-righteous outrage [felt] by the Australian Labor Party at its defeat in the 2001 federal elections". An appendix to their report documented cases where passengers aboard other SIEVs had threatened children, sabotaged their own vessels, committed [[self-harm]] and, in the case of SIEV 7 on 22 October, thrown a child overboard who was rescued by another asylum seeker.<ref name='DissentReport1'>{{cite web
 |year=2002
 |title= Government Members Report – Appendix I – The Pattern of Conduct, Select Committee on a certain maritime incident
 |publisher= Parliament of Australia
 |accessdate= 17 January 2014
 |url=http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Former_Committees/maritimeincident/report/f04
 |url-status= live
 |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20140116193316/http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Former_Committees/maritimeincident/report/f04
 |archivedate=16 January 2014
}}
</ref><ref name='SMH20021024_MinoritySenators'>{{ cite news
 | url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/23/1034561551340.html
 | title=Liberal senators slam children overboard inquiry
 | work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]
 | author=Cynthia Banham
 | date=24 October 2002
}}
</ref>