Dear
Mr Hartsuyker,
In this week’s
edition of ‘The Sun Herald there is an item announcing that the Immigration
Department has made a $6 million telemovie which made its debut on Afghanistan
television last Friday . It is called “The Journey ” and is intended as a
deterrent to would be asylum seekers . The film depicts the harsh treatment that
refugees can expect if they attempt to come to Australia.
According to the
press report, a Sydney company called “Put it Out There Pictures” was
commissioned to make the movie. A trailer is advertised as being available on
“Youtube” via the web site of “ Put it Out There Pictures” showing scenes of a group of Afghan asylum
seekers attempting to get to Australia by boat. Their distress and subsequent
treatment is apparently made very clear in the film. When I tried to view the
videoclip of the film I found that I could not access it.
The Department of
Border Protection and Immigration spent more on this short film, an
estimated $6 million, than most top ranking Australian film classics of recent
times. Around $ 1.63 million of tax payers money has been spent on advertising
and promotion alone. Apparently the film has already been screened in Pakistan
, Iraq and Iran and has been translated into a variety of Middle Eastern
languages.
However, we are
informed that the film will not be available in English.
The question I am
putting to you is this . If the film was commissioned in our name and we, the
Australian tax payers are footing the bill for the film why are we
not being allowed to listen to the commentary in English ? Why is the
film is not being screened with sound track that most Australians
understand ? Furthermore why can we not view the videoclip even in a
foreign language ? I urge you to raise this matter with the Department of
Border Protection and Immigration.
We seem to be
living in a ‘secret state ‘ where our politicians feel it is appropriate to
keep us all in the dark. We deserve to know what has been screened
internationally in our name.
Yours
sincerely,
Marlene Griffin .
28 March 2016
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