Letter posted to 45 left leaningl Labor MPs and Senators re open letter to Bill Shorten 18 April 2018

_{18th April 2018}

_Dear

_{Please find attached a copy of the open letter  which I sent to Bill Shorten earlier this week, together with a copy of the covering letter, also addressed to Bill Shorten.}

_{Rural Australians for Refugee groups around Australia have long recognised that the present government has no intention of relaxing its increasingly hardline and coercive stance on refugees and asylum seekers. We therefore have to look to those in the Labor party who might offer a glimmer of hope for the many thousands of asylum seekers and refugees who are currently living in fear and uncertainty in our communities or who remain indefinitely stranded and almost forgotten on Nauru and Manus.}

_{The present policy is utterly cruel, inhumane, of doubtful legality and enormously expensive. Your support in working for  significant changes to Labor's current policy would be widely welcomed. It is time to be courageous, to confront the political risks, and to make a principled and humane stand on behalf of our asylum seekers and refugees. We have surely punished them enough!}

                                                                                                                                                _{Yours sincerely,}

                                                                                                                                                 _{Mike Griffin}

                                                        _{Bellingen and Nambucca District RAR}