7th
December 2017
Dear
Mr Neumann,
Please
find enclosed an open letter, addressed to you, which has been signed by 535
people who have visited our refugee market stall in Bellingen, Coffs Harbour
and Valla Beach in recent weeks. Each signature represents a conversation with
everyday Australians who are deeply dismayed by the cruelty and inhumanity of
the present government's asylum policy. Many of them also expressed their anger
about the Labor opposition's support, for purely political reasons, for a
policy which is inflicting untold suffering and misery on innocent asylum
seekers and refugees on Manus and Nauru. We have long since lost count of the
number of people who tell us that they feel ashamed to be Australian.
We
are sick and tired of politicians who continue to repeat the tired mantra about
"saving lives at sea". It is morally reprehensible to hold innocent
people in indefinite detention to serve as a deterrent to others. You must know
this, and your indifference to the terrible impact of the current policy on
people's lives would indicate that Labor has lost its moral compass, and that
political calculation trumps principle and integrity every time. Little wonder
that people increasingly have little respect for, or trust in, our politicians,
a trend that is deeply damaging to our democratic process.
We
can only hope that, in the months ahead, given the increasing public awareness
of the appalling situation on Manus and Nauru and the growing consensus that
the current Coalition and Labor policies are both cruel and unsustainable, the
Labor party might finally adopt a more principled and humane policy aimed at
bringing this cruelty to an end. This must include the closure of offshore
detention centres, and a firm promise that they will never be reopened.
Yours
sincerely,
Mike
Griffin
Bellingen and Nambucca District
RAR
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