5th October 2015
Dear Mr Shorten,
Please find enclosed the details of the 370 people who have recently
signed the petition published by the Bellingen and Nambucca District Rural
Australians for Refugees. The petition reads:
"We, the undersigned, call on the Australian Labor Party to
support the millions of Australians who are dismayed by the Coalition
government's cruel, immoral and unlawful treatment of asylum seekers.
Specifically, we urge you:
· to seek an end
date to the indefinite detention of children on the mainland, on Manus and on
Nauru.
·
to develop
policies for the transparent and independent oversight of these centres.
· to seek
amendments to the Border Force Act, in order to enable doctors, nurses and
other support workers to report on their experiences in these centres without
the fear of prosecution.
·
to demand access
to the centres by NGOs, such as Amnesty International, and by
journalists."
We are two relatively small communities, but the support for our
campaign to seek an end to the cruel and inhumane treatment of asylum seekers
and refugees on Manus and Nauru grows stronger each day.
We have long since
lost count of the number of angry people who tell us that they feel ashamed to
be Australian. They are ashamed and angry that the government, with the support
of the Labor opposition, continues to preside over the indefinite detention,
the cruel and inhumane treatment and the sexual abuse of vulnerable people who
have committed no crime. These people
are entitled to our protection, yet we continue to punish them.
We urge the Labor Party to strongly oppose the government's asylum
policy and to actively campaign for the closure of offshore detention centres.
Yours
sincerely,
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