Report should have gone to Corby: Labor

22:02 AEST Tue May 31 2005

The federal government has hit back at claims it failed to pass on to Schapelle Corby's lawyers a Customs report into drug smuggling at Australian airports, saying it never knew the document existed.

Labor has questioned why the government did not hand over the secret report, which revealed that baggage handlers diverted bags containing large amounts of drugs from incoming international flights to domestic baggage carousels.

Opposition homeland security spokesman Robert McClelland said given the report had been around since September it should have gone to lawyers for Corby, who has been sentenced by a Bali court to 20 years jail for drug smuggling.

"It indicates systematic criminality ... that is a material fact that at the very least should have been disclosed to her defence," Mr. McClelland said.

Mr. Downer said neither he nor Transport Minister John Anderson were aware of the report until it was leaked to The Australian newspaper.

"It was an internal report on behalf of the Australian Customs Service, if you're trying to make a party political point here, which I suspect you might be, which is a little disappointing," he told parliament.

"This was an internal working document of the Australian Customs Service, none of you saw it, nor did I and nor did the deputy prime minister (Mr. Anderson)."

Meanwhile the federal government is under pressure from the states to negotiate international prisoner transfer programs with a range of Australia's neighbours.

The government is sending a team of negotiators to Indonesia next week to try and nut out a prisoner exchange program which would allow Corby to serve her sentence on home soil.

NSW Justice Minister John Hatzistergos called on the federal government to stop dragging its feet and sign agreements with New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and China.

"I am sympathetic to Schapelle Corby's plight ... but the federal government shouldn't stop there," he told a conference for corrective services ministers in Brisbane.

Justice Minister Chris Ellison said Australia was negotiating transfer agreements with other countries.

However, he said such agreements were often complex and took time to complete.

Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa says a deal with Australia is no certainty and nor is a one-off deal to bring Corby home.

"I must emphasise that agreement ... would be unprecedented from our perspective if we were to have one because we don't have a transfer of sentence agreement with any country whatsoever," he told ABC Radio.

"And even if we were to have one, and that's a big if, even if we were to have one that would be an instrument in general in application and not specifically designed to any one particular legal case by any one particular individual."

Corby's sentence sparked outrage, with some Australians vowing to boycott Bali and taking back foreign aid donated after the Boxing Day tsunami.

Now some of her supporters have called for a national day of protest on July 10 to coincide with her 28th birthday.

An Australian official who visited Corby in jail said she is "bearing up really well" as she starts her 20-year sentence.

At her request, Corby's family and legal team stayed away from Bali's Kerobokan prison on Tuesday.

Corby asked for fewer visits while she reflects on her situation and recuperates from the stress of her trial that ended in chaos, screams and tears with a guilty verdict last Friday.

But she did receive a visit from Australian consul Ross Tysoe, who later told journalists: "Schapelle's remarkably strong and bearing up really well - she's in a very positive mood."

Tysoe, who brought Corby some mail and personal items, said she had adopted a "positive" attitude now that her case had moved into its appeal phase.

She had been heartened by news that two Perth barristers would help in the campaign for her freedom, he said.

Tysoe's comments run counter to many media reports that have said Corby is inconsolable and have painted her morale as rock bottom.